C is for Chocolate Chip Cookies: Inventions by Women A-Z

Few can resist the tantalizing aroma of chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven on a cold wintry afternoon and that first  gooey, warm bite.

It's been estimated that the average person consumes 35,000 cookies in their lifetime, and of those, 50% are Chocolate Chip.

Did you know that it is the way the chocolate chip pieces melt individually in the dough that sets this cookie apart from all others? Did you also know that the recipe for this cookie came about by pure accident?

It all started with the purchase of an old (1709) rundown Cape Cod-style toll house* in the Boston/New Bedford area in 1930, by a young married couple named Ken and Ruth Wakefield. They used their life savings, at a time in history when others might have hesitated. It was the Great Depression. They called their new tourist lodge The Toll House Inn.
 

The Wakefield's Toll House Inn (fully restored)

[*Toll houses (inns) were popular in the 18th century and common along toll roads. Stagecoaches would stop at the inns to pay the road fee and passengers would rest awhile and dine].

Ruth Graves Wakefield (1903-1977)

Ruth, as an educated dietician and home economist, took on the cooking for the guests. The Toll House Inn restaurant flourished and became quite popular with the locals. Guests grew to love (and expect) a cookie on the menu called Butter Drop-Do Cookies . . . but that's when the accident occurred, sometime around 1937 (the actual date is still debated).

Butter Drop-Do Cookies

The recipe called for melted squares of baking chocolate, but when Ruth checked the pantry one evening, she discovered she was out. With guests waiting, and seeing some Nestle's Semi-Sweet Chocolate bars on the shelf, she decided to substitute the bars. Breaking the bars into pieces, she fully expected the chocolate to melt and blend into the dough. Well, of course it didn't, and the rest is history. The new cookie was a huge hit and was called Chocolate Crispy Cookies at first (another source claims it was called Chocolate Crunch Cookies). 

The kind of chocolate Ruth used

Word spread as the cookie gained in popularity. Meanwhile the demand for Nestles Chocolate increased dramatically, as did the company's profits. A deal was finally made in 1939 between Ruth and the owner, Andrew Nestles. Henceforth, the agreement said, Nestles would give Ruth a lifetime supply of chocolate and print the cookie's recipe on the Nestles package. Besides the great taste, it is the main reason Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies are America's most popular cookie today.  

Sadly, The Toll House Inn burned 

to the ground in 1985.  

Curious about the first recipe? 

The original recipe was printed in the Syracuse Herald-Journal in 1940, as taken from Ruth Wakefield's cookbook:

1 cup butter
2 1/4 cups flour
3/4 cup brown sugar [packed]
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, beaten, whole
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon hot water
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped nuts
2 Nestle's Semi-Sweet Economy Bars (7 oz ea)
1 teaspoon vanilla

"Important: Cut the Nestle's Semi-Sweet in pieces the size of a pea. Cream butter and add sugars and beaten egg. Dissolve soda in the hot water and mix alternately with the flour sifted with the salt. Lastly add the chopped nuts and the pieces of semi-sweet chocolate. Flavor with the vanilla and drop half teaspoons on a greased cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes in a 375° F. oven. Makes 100 cookies. Every one will be surprised and delighted to find that the chocolate does not melt. Insist on Nestle's Semi-Sweet Chocolate in the Yellow Wrap, there is no substitute." 


Ruth added the recipe to a revised cookbook, with this note:  

 "At Toll House we chill this dough overnight. When ready for baking, we roll a teaspoon of dough between palms of hands and place balls two inches apart on greased baking sheet. Then we press balls with finger tips to form flat rounds. This way cookies do not spread as much in the baking and they keep uniformly round. They should be brown through, and crispy, not white and hard as I have sometimes seen them."

Cookie!

Sources:
http://www.women-inventors.com/Ruth-Wakefield.asp
http://www.cooksinfo.com/ruth-wakefield
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Graves_Wakefield http://historyspaces.blogspot.com/2012/03/history-of-chocolate-chip-cookie-and.html

Copyright 2015 © Sharon Marie Himsl

Sharon M. Himsl

Writer/Author. Blogging since 2011. 
Published with Evernight Teen: 
~~The Shells of Mersing
 

N is for Nutmeg: Yummy Fruits A-Z

(Nutmeg trees grow 40-70 feet;
the fruit often splits when ripe)

Did you know that nutmeg is actually a fruit? Two spices are derived from this aromatic fruit, nutmeg from the seed (nutmeat), and mace from the seed's red membrane (aril). The yellow fruit surrounding the seed and membrane is also edible, which in Malaysia is often candied or pickled as a snack.

The origin of the nutmeg tree can be traced back to the island of Banda, the largest of the Molucca islands (or Spice Islands) in Indonesia. It is also grown in Malaysia, the Caribbean, India, Sri Lanka, and Papua New Guinea. The history of this spice is long and colorful, dating back to medieval times when a monk in Europe first sprinkled nutmeg over his pudding. Nutmeg was later thought to ward off the plague during Elizabethan times. 

Others recorded its use as well, like Roman author Pliny in the first century, who liked nutmeg's two flavors. Emperor Henry VI had the streets of Rome scented with nutmeg for his coronation, and Constantinople received his first nutmeg from visiting Arab merchants. The price of nutmeg soared. By the fourteenth century, a half kilogram is said to have cost three sheep or a cow. 

(Nutmeg fruit is 0.8 to 1.2 inches long)

The Dutch went to war over nutmeg in 1621, gaining control of its production in the East Indies. The price soared even higher. In 1760, a pound of nutmeg cost 85 to 90 shillings in London. The monopoly lasted until World War II.

Apparently, nutmeg was used for centuries as a form of snuff in Indonesia and India, and also as medicine. However, high doses sometimes caused nutmeg poisoning, which is still possible today. A little goes a long way. Some claim it can sharpen the brain, ease joint pain, rev blood circulation, and help with digestion. But for most of us, nutmeg is a flavorful spice for our eggnogs, breads, cookies, and cakes.

Nutmeg Recipe

(Spices I purchase)

"Overnight Nutmeg Cookies"

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons half-and-half
3 tablespoons orange juice
Grated rind of 1 orange
3 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt

Cream butter with sugar in medium bowl. In second bowl combine cream, orange juice, and rind; blend well. Sift flour and stir in nutmeg and salt. Add butter mixture alternately with orange juice mixture. Add more flour (if needed) to form stiff dough. Shape into roll and wrap in waxed paper. Chill overnight. Slice chilled dough 1/8 inch thick and place on greased baking sheet. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven 8-10 minutes. Yield: 4-5 dozen. 

(Grating nutmeg seed. Can we buy in U.S.?)

Nutmeg Books

--Nathaniel's Nutmeg: Or the True and Incredible 

Adventures of the Spice Trader Who Changed the Course of History by Giles Milton (2000) (nonfiction)

--Tumtum & Nutmeg: The Rose Cottage Adventures by Emily Bearn and Nick Price (2013) (ages 8-12)

--The Nutmeg of Consolation 
(book 14) 
by Patrick O'Brian (1993) (adult) 

--The Nutmeg Princess by Richardo Keens-Douglas and Annouchka Galouchko (2014) (ages 6-9)

Nutmeg Song

--"My Nutmeg Phantasy" by Macy Gray

Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutmeg; http://www.care2.com/greenliving/8-amazing-health-benefits-of-nutmeg.html

Sharon M. Himsl

Writer/Author. Blogging since 2011. 
Published with Evernight Teen: 
~~The Shells of Mersing