Before Julia Child or the Pillsbury Dough Boy, there was a women who made one heck of a cookie, Ruth Wakefield.
It was 1930, and Ruth worked as dietitian and nutrition lecturer. Ruth and her husband bought an old toll house, and turned it into lodge (also known as a bed and breakfast). According to Faribault Daily News, that is where fate caught up with her.
One of her favorite recipes was a buttery chocolate drop cookie. Discovering she was out of baker’s chocolate, she grabbed a semi-sweet chocolate bar, given to her by a guest, Andrew Nestlè, and chopped it into tiny bits. To her surprise, the chocolate did not melt, but held its shape and softened to a creamy texture. Her cookie became extremely popular with the Inn’s guests and the recipe soon appeared in a Boston newspaper. It quickly spread throughout New England.
The Nestlè Company was selling so many semi-sweet bars, they made an agreement with Ruth. If Nestlé could put her recipe on the wrapper, they would provide her with a lifetime supply of chocolate. An all-American treat was born!
Ruth died in 1977 but Toll House cookies live on. Now they are more commonly called chocolate chip cookies, due to the many brands of bagged chocolate bits and recipe variations. Nestlè’s original Toll House chips are still on your grocer’s shelf, the original recipe still appears on the bag, and if you look closely, you’ll see a tiny picture of Ruth Wakefield’s toll house cottage.
Photo by slgckgc