The story of the chocolate-chip cookie recipe can be condensed in a single sentence: a baker was looking forward to melting chocolate pieces while making cookies but failed. Nevertheless, there is still something else about the invention of this delicious snack that you need to know. The chocolate chip cookie has Ruth Wakefield to thank for its existence, since she ran the Toll House Inn in the early 1930s.
In fact, evidence from university and institutional records shows that Wakefield had been working on recipes for her inn's customers before inventing the chocolate chip cookie. In her words, as quoted by the MIT Lemelson Program, Ruth and her husband bought Toll House and turned it into an inn serving homemade meals and desserts. It is worth noting that the location of creation played a crucial role, as the recipe was developed in a commercial kitchen.
The classic tale describes how Wakefield added chunks of semi-sweet chocolate to the dough so they would melt while baking. In reality, however, the chunks melted but remained distinct in small pockets within the cookie. As for whether everything took place exactly as described by the tale, it is still up for debate.
According to archival records at Framingham State University, Wakefield was attempting to create the recipe intentionally, not by accident, which matters greatly because the creation was no mere happenstance. It was the result of experimentation within America's constantly evolving culinary tradition.
