The Chocolate Chip Cookie: A Bit of History

The epically snowy winter is putting a damper on our questing but never fear, loyal followers. We'll be back at it once there is no longer a blizzard every week (literally). In the meantime, I thought I would research the chocolate chip cookie.

We got the idea for this quest from this website, which lists the 50 Most Fattening Foods in the 50 States. The chocolate chip cookie is the most fattening food in the Commonwealth (at least according to these people) and I've got to say that alongside things like "livermush" (made of pig head parts, from North Carolina), Eskimo Ice Cream (involving reindeer fat and seal oil, from Alaska), and the "Luther Burger" (donuts + meat, from Georgia), Massachusetts made one of the better contributions to the American waistline. Sidenote: My home state of New Mexico contributed frito pie to the list, which would make a really great quest. At any rate, look at the slideshow. It will make you want to brush your teeth and go to the gym.

Back to the quest at hand.

The Toll House Inn 

The chocolate chip cookie is a "drop cookie," as distinguished from molded cookies, pressed cookies, etc. It was invented, like most delicious things, by accident. Ruth Wakefield owned the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts and she stumbled upon the recipe one day. There are conflicting accounts of her motivations (thanks, Wikipedia). One story, propagated by Nestle, indicates that she was trying to make chocolate cookies and ran out of baker's chocolate. She substituted broken pieces of chocolate and hoped they would melt into the dough and, voila, the chocolate chip cookie was born. She apparently sold the recipe to Nestle in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate chips (good cook, bad businesswoman). Story #2 gives Wakefield more credit as a cook - she was already the author of a cookbook and no stranger to the melting properties of chocolate, and would never have thought they would melt into the dough. Apparently, the "accident" occurred when the vibrations of a mixer caused a bag of chocolate to fall into a batch of cookie dough and only the protestations of a savvy employee (obviously the source of story #2) kept Wakefield from tossing the whole batch into the garbage. Either way, Toll House Cookies were born. GIs asked for them in care packages, people wrote letters to Wakefield asking for the recipe, and the national chocolate chip cookie craze began with a bang. Then we all got fat, which brings me to the 1990s.

In 1997, a third grade class from Somerset, Massachusetts proposed that the Commonwealth adopt the chocolate chip cookie as the official state cookie. The legislature, after many long hours of debate and tastings, obliged. The state beverage (cranberry juice), state bean (Navy), state dessert (Boston Cream Pie), state donut (Boston Cream), and state muffin (corn) welcomed the chocolate chip cookie into the fold.

And here we are! Questing for the official state cookie of Massachusetts is a fitting final quest for kday and I, who will soon part ways (she will take up residence in the home of the BLT and I will stay here and continue eating my way through Boston). We are excited for our adventure, which will include a day of face-stuffing at Fanieul Hall, where Boston keeps many, many cookies (including John Kerry's favorite) so stay tuned!