You
may have heard the story of how chocolate chip cookies were invented:
in the 1930s, Ruth Graves Wakefield chopped up chocolate and added the
bits to cookie dough without melting them, mistakenly thinking the
chocolate would spread in the oven and produce chocolate cookies. It’s
an interesting story, but it’s just not true. Wakefield was a renowned
and accomplished baker who would never make such a mistake, nor would
she take a shortcut with her cookies.
Back in 1930
Ruth Wakefield and her husband Ken bought what would become the Toll
House Inn, intending to open a restaurant. It was in a good location, on
the road between Boston and Cape Cod. With Ruth Wakefield’s experience
as a Home Economist and her skillful cooking, high standards, and
favorite family recipes, they were successful their very first year.
Former employees attribute that success to Ruth Wakefield’s strict
attention to detail and insistence on providing excellent service in
addition to delicious meals. She had rules about every little thing,
including the exact distance from the edge of the table the silverware
should be. (She has a whole chapter on setting the table in her book.)
In countless interviews, former customers raved about her sticky pecan
biscuits (recipe below) that were set on every table for guests to
nibble on while they decided what to order. Famous food critic Duncan
Hines (yes, the cake mix guy) was particularly fond of her Indian
pudding. Joseph Kennedy Sr. was said to drop by frequently for Boston
Cream Pie. The restaurant was such a family favorite that Rose Kennedy
had the Toll House Inn send weekly care packages to her sons overseas
during WWII (JFK was partial to their Mary Jane Gingerbread.) In
numerous newspaper articles from the forties on, customers and employees
interviewed praised the gracious service and the wonderful desserts
(they had their own separate menu!) Does this sound like the kind of
place run by a woman who didn’t know what she was doing in the kitchen?
There
are other tales of how the Toll House cookie recipe was invented,
before we could ever buy chocolate chips at a grocery, that belittle
Wakefield’s skills or even shift the credit for the cookie to a man. But
Wakefield knew what she was doing. You can
read the whole story of how the Toll House cookie came about,
and see plenty of recipes for the cookies, its later variations, and
even instructions for making Wakefield’s sticky pecan biscuits, at The
Toast.
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