Have you ever wondered who invented the chocolate chip
cookie? Because chocolate chip cookies are so common, it is
easy to forget that these treats have not been around
forever. In fact, did you know that chocolate chip cookies
are not even one hundred years old? It's true!
The answer to "who invented the chocolate chip cookie" is:
Ruth Graves Wakefield.
Ruth Graves Wakefield was born on June 17, 1903 and she is
person who invented the Toll House Cookie, which was the
world's first chocolate chip cookie.
Ruth Wakefield was educated at the Framingham State Normal
School Development of Household Arts and she graduated in
1924. After graduating from school, she worked both as a
doctor and gave lectures about food.
In 1930 Wakefield and her husband purchased a lodge for
tourists in Whitman, Massachusetts (part of Plymouth
County). The lodge was first built in 1709 and has a long
and rich history of its own. Many weary travelers have
spent the night at the lodge as it is conveniently located
around halfway between New Bedford and Boston. This is
usually where passers through paid a toll, changed their
horses and stopped for some much appreciated home cooked
food. When the Wakefields bought it, they named the lodge
the Toll House Inn and made sure to keep up with the
lodge's traditions. All of the home cooked meals were
prepared and served by Ruth and it was not long before her
desserts earned her some local fame. There were many
visitors to the lodge, one of the most famous being John F.
Kennedy (when he was still a Senator).
In 1940, Ruth wrote a cookbook called Toll House Tried and
True Recipes. Ruth passed away in 1977 and the Toll House
Inn burned down at the end of 1983. While there are plenty
of companies that make and sell chocolate chips now, the
recipe printed on the back of the Nestle Toll House bags is
the original Ruth Graves Wakefield recipe. As of today,
Nestle is the only company with the rights to print the
recipe on its bags. All of the recipes that are printed on
other company's' bags are different from the original
recipe.
The chocolate chip cookie was invented in the late 1930s
(making it almost seventy seven years old) though there are
different stories about how, exactly, the original
chocolate chip cookie recipe was invented. Some stories say
it was an accident, others say it was an experiment and
still others say that it was a purposeful recipe. The story
of how the chocolate chip cookie was invented varies
according to the person telling the story. One thing is for
certain, though, and that is that the answer to "who
invented the chocolate chip cookie" is Ruth Graves
Wakefield. Who knew that what might have started out as an
experiment or an accident would someday be one of the most
common treats in the Western World? Who doesn't remember
eating chocolate chip cookies after school?
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Just think, you can start enjoying the recipes right away
-- no waiting at all! Can you taste the key limes already?
You gotta try the Chocolate Chip Key Lime
Cookies...mmmmmm!http://www.chocolatechipcookie.info/index.h
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