Jevay Do you remember when Donkey from Shrek said “parfaits…everybody loves parfaits…parfaits might be the best thing in the whole world”? That is exactly how I feel about chocolate chip cookies. In fact, I’ve never met a human being that didn’t like a warm chocolate-ly chip cookie. Granted, I have only met less than 1% of all human beings that occupy Earth 616 or 999999 (Marvel anyone?), but still all those human beings love chocolate chip cookies and rightfully so! I bet you do too, otherwise you wouldn’t have clicked on this article. (Also, thank you). Chocolate chip cookies have two things: simple ingredients and a delightfully complicated history. Let’s dive into both, shall we?
Chocolate Chip Cookie History
Henri Nestle was a chemist who just wouldn’t give up. This man embodied the entrepreneurial spirit of “if at first you don’t succeed, keep creating products that will” . Henri went on to create fertilizers, cement, liquefiers, mineral water, liqueurs, and vinegar. Though these were decent products none of them took off in the market quite like his infant formula, “Farine Lactee”. This product was a success due to two things: the industrialization period and the ingredients. Henri combined flour and milk to make his formula and could do so using the tools created during this urbanization period. Henri’s infant formula was used by another chemist named Daniel Peter!
Coincidentally, Daniel Peter was trying to invent his own milk chocolate bar. Though the chocolate industry is bustling with competition now, there weren’t that many competitors at this time in the late 1860s. In fact, chocolate bars were a fairly new invention back then only dating back to 1847. Daniel’s use of Henri’s infant formula gave him idea. He decided to add one of Henri’s newest products (sweetened condensed milk) to his chocolate and that formula actually worked! Thus creating a sell-able chocolate bar that would cause great demand.
Eventually, Henri and Daniel teamed up together to form Nestle chocolate.
On the other side of the world, Ruth Wakefield was the owner, along with her husband, of the Toll House restaurant in Massachusetts from 1930 to 1967. Ruth was a fairly renowned chef in the area. So, as you can imagine, the restaurant was very popular. Ruth set out to create an accompaniment to the ice cream that she served, thus came the idea of the chocolate chip cookie. Now, we love a good legend and of course this story has one. Legend has it that Ruth ran out of nuts (her original recipe idea) and in desperation replaced the nuts with chunks of a chopped Nestle chocolate bar!
I don’t know if that’s true or not, but what I do know is that what Ruth did come up with the crowd went wild for. She published this recipe in 1938 in her cookbook called “Tried and True”. Her cookie recipe became so famous that it was featured on Majorie Husted’s radio program. Now, this might seem like a random radio show. However, Majorie Husted was the radio personality that represented the Betty Crocker brand. So, I would say that’s a pretty big deal.
Eventually, Ruth would go on to sell her chocolate chip recipe and the Tollhouse name to Nestle Chocolate creating the brand name “Nestle Tollhouse Cookies”.
Shameless plug: If you’d like to hear the history in action watch the Youtube video below. It’s a riot!
Ingredients
Chocolate chip cookies vary greatly in taste and quality. Here are the ingredient swaps that I use to give my cookies a little razzle dazzle!
Chocolate:
Ditch the morsels. If you want the puddles of chocolate you have to use a chopped chocolate or a baking bar. Traditional chocolate chips are made to withstand very high heat and keep their shape. They will not melt out of their shape unless assisted by a cream. Therefore, you’ll still have a chocolate chip when you pull the cookies out of the oven. No Bueno. Use chopped chocolate. I also mix dark chocolate with semi-sweet. It deepens the flavor. Just trust me on that one.
Brown Butter:
To know me, is to know that I love me some brown butter. It’s my favorite ingredient besides salt. Using this will create a deeper and nuttier flavor for your cookies without having to freeze them.
Sea Salt:
Salt brings out the flavor in food. Have a salt bae moment and sprinkle a little on a the cookies fresh out of the oven. Literal perfection.
Add ins:
I like to experiment with these cookies by adding in various items like cinnamon, walnuts, pecans, or even white chocolate. Honestly the sky is the limit.
Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cup AP Flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 14 ounces butter brown 10 ounces and save 4 ounces
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 bar chopped semi sweet chocolate
- 1/2 bar chopped dark chocolate
Instructions
- preheat the oven to 375F.
- Begin by browning 10 ounces of the butter in a small sauce pan. This should take 5-6 minutes. Once browned, add the 4 ounces of cool butter to the brown butter and stir until melted.
- Stir the sugars, salt, and vanilla extract into the same saucepan. Allow the mixture to rest for just a minute or so to aid in cooling
- Chop the chocolate, and mix-ins. Sat aside.
- Add the eggs into the same saucepan and stir.
- In a larger bowl, mix the flour and baking soda. Pour the wet mixture into the larger bowl with the flour until combined.
- Add the mix-ins in. Scoop the dough using a cookie scoop, or an ice cream scooper. Bake for 8-10 minutes or 10-12 minutes. Cookies should be crispy around the edges, but soft set in the middle.
Video
Notes
Happy Reading, Happy Eating!
-Jevaydanielle_
Crazy that Ruth came up with the chocolate chip cookie recipe by accident. Shoutout to Peter and Nestle for having the vision to buy the recipe from Ruth. Very interesting story.
And I bet your chocolate chip cookies taste as good as they look! I’ll be browning my butter for my next batch.