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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookie Joy

Did you know that the chocolate chip cookie is the official cookie of Massachusetts?  Here in Illinois, we have an official snack food – popcorn – but no state cookie.  And while I do love popcorn, there’s something about a warm chocolate chip cookie with a glass of milk.

Of course, the reason Massachusetts is particularly fond of the cookie is because it was reputedly invented there.  According to Wikipedia, chocolate chip cookies were developed by Ruth Graves Wakefield in 1930.  According to the story, Mrs. Wakefield was making chocolate cookies at her Whitman, Massachusetts inn, the Toll House Inn. When she ran low on baker’s chocolate, she substituted broken bits of semi-sweet chocolate, hoping they would melt and mix into the batter.  I kind of wonder about this; if she really wanted them to melt, wouldn’t she have melted them in a small pot first?  Whatever the truth of the story, a recipe for “Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookies” appeared in her 1936 cookbook, Toll House Tried and True Recipes.  Mrs. Wakefield then sold the recipe to NestlĂ©, supposedly in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate chips. 

For the last several years, I have forsaken the original toll house recipe and made my cookies using Martha Stewart’s “Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies” recipe which you can find on her website.  I follow her recipe pretty exactly except I used salted butter and reduce the additional salt by half.  I sometimes throw in some chopped nuts, too, but this batch is heading down to the son at school, and he likes his cookies nut-free.  These cookies really are soft, not crispy like many toll house ones.  The trick is to use a generous scoop and slightly undercook.
What’s your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe?

16 comments:

  1. I love chocolate chip cookies and I always associate them with the USA! I like mine soft and chewy as well and I have added nuts in the past too. Lovely that you are sending something homemade and delicious to your son at College.

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  2. I loooove chocolate chip cookies! They are amazing :)

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  3. Wonderful pictures and the cookies look delish! I love the plate - is it an antique?

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  4. Yum! Your posts always make me so hungry!

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  5. YUM!!! choc chip are my favorite for sure. and yes, must have the glass of milk. love the story. i'm glad she ran out of chocolate.

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  6. Go ahead and send some to me too? Okeedokee??

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  7. You just made me crave chocolate chip cookies! I usually make the Tollhouse cookies but I'll be trying the Martha cookie next.

    Alton Brown has good chocolate chip cookie recipe too.

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  8. I love the beautiful plate the cookies are sitting on!

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  9. These are about the only cookies I was able to make easily when living in Canada, and still do sometimes when my husband (diabetic) feels like kicking over the traces a bit and being "naughty" over his diet.

    Thanks for your recent comment on my blog - the fact that my toys go international is one of the real attractions of being involved with Etsy for me! Apart from all the lovely folks who now follow me, as a result of my being on Etsy and blogging about it!

    Thanks again. Isobel

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  10. Chocolate chip cookies really ARE the best. Something about that combination of flavors. Happily the vegan version is just as satisfying! Yummy photos!

    Empty On the Inside
    Dough, Dirt & Dye

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  11. I have great news for you! I've nominated you for an award! You can check it out on my blog.

    coffeebreakcrn.blogspot.com

    Thank you for having such an awesome blog. Congrats =)

    -Becca

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  12. YUM! Chocolate chip cookies are my FAVORITE dessert ever! These look fabulous! I, like you son, enjoy a nut free cookie. I haven't found a recipe that I like as much as the refrigerated Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Lovers cookies you get at the grocery store, BUT I'm always willing to try a new recipe. I'll have to check Martha's recipe next time I want them. Thanks for sharing!

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  13. Those cookies look scrumptious (and I LOVE that plate!) I've never tried Martha's recipe but I may have to give it a go. My favorite CCC recipe is one I cobbled together using the NY Time Jacques Torres recipe and Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home recipe. They're nut-free too, and chewy rather than crunchy. Isn't chewiness a requirement for a good cookie? :-)

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  14. omg, I love soft cookies and these look so good! I don't have a favorite CC cookie recipe to share, I don't usually eat them much. I'd be throwing raisins and cinnamon chips in these instead.

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  15. A few people have asked about the plate. It is "Fiesta" by Narumi China made in Occupied Japan.

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  16. I just LOVE toll house cookies. they're the bomb. my mom made hers this christmas and it was one of my favorite presents.

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