May 15th National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day

Did you ever ask yourself "I  wonder who invented (fill in the blank)??"  My kids ask me this question almost daily.  My 10 year old daughter asked yesterday "I wonder who invented grass?"  Referring to the kind of grass that we cut with a lawn mower!

 With today's technology we can get get the answers to these questions almost instantly.
I was researching national health awareness days for a project at work and came across National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day! How cool is that- a day to celebrate the chocolate chip cookie.  Now, I am all about chocolate chip cookies of all varieties.  I have been baking them since I was a kid.
Like all great recipes the chocolate chip cookie was an accident.

Ruth Wakefield invented the chocolate chip cookie in 1930. Ruth was a 1924 graduate of the Framingham State Normal School Department of Household Arts. She lectured on food and worked as a dietician.  Ruth and her husband Kenneth ran a bed & breakfast near Whitman, Massachusetts.  The name of the establishment was none other than the "Toll House Inn."  Ruth was very well know for her desserts and frequently made her guests a butter drop cookie.

One day Ruth decided she wanted to make a chocolate butter drop cookie but did not have the proper chocolate on hand.  Ruth did however have a bar of Nestle's chocolate given to her by Andrew Nestle himself. Ruth decided to cut up the bar into tiny pieces hoping that the chocolate would melt and create an all chocolate cookie. Needless to say, this did not happen but the chocolate bits softened up and created a whole new delicious variety of cookie that was a huge success.
Ruth made a deal with Nestle that they could put the recipe on the back of their package as long as they supplied her with free chocolate  to make her guests cookies.  In 1939 Nestle's created the chocolate morsels that we know today!

Fun Facts:

• chocolate chip cookies are the most popular kind of cookie in America
• 7 billion chocolate chip cookies are eaten annually
• Toll House produces 33,000 cookies each day.

MRS. WAKEFIELD'S ORIGINAL TOLL HOUSE COOKIE RECIPE:
2 1/4 cups all- purpose flour (Use your favorite GF flour blend to substitute plus 1/2 tsp xanthan gum)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter or margarine -softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 2/3 cups Nestle chocolate morsels
1 cup chopped nuts
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Combine flour, baking soda, salt (**xanthan gum if making GF cookies) in small bowl.  Beat butter, sugars, and vanilla extract in a large mixer bowl until creamy, add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition.  Gradually beat in flour mixture. stir in chocolate morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake 9-11 minutes until golden brown and cool for 2 minutes.

Celebrate National Chocolate chip cookie day by baking your own cookie for your family! The photo above is my Gluten-free version of a chocolate chip cookie.
Enjoy!