Do you LOVE Chocolate Chip Cookies?? Follow along as I find out where this Jeni's Southern Homemade staple cookie comes from. Chocolate Chip cookies are the number one requested cookie. They are simple yet complex in flavor and can be eaten alone, with ice cream, milk, coffee and endless options. Thanks to two women who were looking to do something "a little more interesting" to their butterscotch cookie the chocolate chip cookie was born!
The Toll House inn was an inn located in Whitman, Massachusetts established in 1930 by Kenneth and Ruth Wakefield. Ms. Ruth prepared all the food at the inn and became very popular in her community. Her desserts were growing in popularity as well and in 1938 her assistant, Sue Brides, and Ruth decided to try something new. She had a Nestle chocolate bar and chopped it up and mixed it with her butterscotch cookie she was already making. Of course it was an instant hit. Up unitl this day, chocolate was used in recipies, but usually melted not used as a chip. According to Sue Brides daughter, Peg, they shipped cookies to the troops in the war and their sales soared. Ruth called up Nestle and shared how popular the cookies are with their chocolate and they struck a deal. Nestle started placing her recipie on the chocolate bar wrapper. According to Peg, this was not the original recipie. Nestle then started marketing the chocolate bar in pieces or chips making it easier for bakers at home to create the cookie.
The Toll house inn unfornutately burned down in 1984 due to a fire in the kitchen. The image of the old inns marker still stands today. Ruth Wakefield passed away in 1977 but her and her assistant Sue Brides, go down in cookie infamy! I use their inspiration everyday coming up with new ideas and new recipies to make Jeni's Southern Homemade unique and modern. Our original sweet and salty chocolate chip cookie is our foundation. I am very proud of our cookie and I know Ruth and Sue would be too!!