The Cookie, BCC (Before Chocolate Chips!)

I have a small collection of old cookbooks, some about 100 years old, but my favourite is probably Ruth Wakefield's Toll House Tried and True Recipes, published in 1936.  The name may give away what makes it special- it contains the original Toll House Cookie recipe, which is the very first chocolate chip cookie!

The tale of the cookie may be slightly disputed, but it's origin is definitely at the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts.  The original recipe, called Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookies, asks bakers to add to the dough 2 bars of Nestle chocolate "which have been cut in pieces the size of a pea".  

I made them tonight, using Mrs. Wakefield's original recipe.  Unfortunately I didn't have any bars of Nestle Yellow Label chocolate lying around the house, so I used some Callebeaut bittersweet chocolate chips.

They turned out perfectly.  Crispy on the outside and melty on the inside.  Just what a chocolate chip cookie should be.  I'm saving some dough, since as Jacques Torres proved, dough gets better with time, so I'll see if cookies baked in a few days are even better.

As great and classic as these cookies are, this is not my go-to recipe.  My standard chocolate chip cookie recipe (for now) is the Hershey's Milk Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe found here.  It produces really chewy cookies, which is my preferred texture.  Enjoy!