As American as Baseball, Hotdogs, Apple….and Chocolate Chip Cookies?
Baseball!
Hotdogs!
Apple Pie!
A sunny day at the ballpark. A hot dog at a picnic. A slice of grandma’s apple pie. Nothing says “America” more than that. But what about the Chocolate Chip Cookie? Did you know that it was invented in America? It doesn’t get any more American than that! So why can’t we change it to “As American as baseball, hotdogs, apple pie, and chocolate chip cookies”?
See below link for a commercial from 1975 extolling the virtues of Chevrolet along with baseball, hotdogs, and apple pie. I think chocolate chip cookies would fit nicely at the end of the jingle!
The Chocolate Chip Cookie was invented by Ruth Graves Wakefield and Sue Bridges, chefs at the Toll House Inn, in Massachusetts.
“We had been serving a thin butterscotch nut cookie with ice cream. Everybody seemed to love it, but I was trying to give them something different. So i came up with Toll House cookie.”
Ruth added chopped up bits from a Nestle semi-sweet chocolate bar into a cookie. The original recipe in Toll House Tried and True Recipes is called “Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookies.” The 1938 edition of the cookbook had the chocolate crunch cookie recipe and is soon became a favorite in American homes.
“During WWII, soldiers from Massachusetts who were stationed overseas shared the cookies they received in care packages from back home with soldiers from other parts of the United States. Soon, hundreds of soldiers were writing home asking their families to send them some Toll House cookies, and Wakefield was soon inundated with letters from around the world requesting her recipe. Thus began the nationwide craze for the chocolate chip cookie.”
Original Toll House Cookie Recipe
1 ½ cups (350 mL) shortening
1 ⅛ cups (265 mL) sugar
1 ⅛ cups (265 mL) brown sugar
3 eggs
1 ½ teaspoon (7.5 g) salt
3 ⅛ cups (750 mL) of flour
1 ½ teaspoon (7.5 g ) hot water
1 ½ teaspoon (7.5) baking soda
1 ½ teaspoon (7.5 g) vanilla
Chocolate chips
Chocolate chip cookies have been an American tradition since the 1930’s. Countless parents have baked homemade chocolate chip cookies to send to their children stationed thousands of miles away in the military, bringing a taste of home and a box of goodness to their loved ones. I remember receiving chocolate chip cookies while I was in boot camp as well as when I was in the middle of the Indian ocean aboard by first command. The sharing of a care package full of chocolate chip cookies brought my shipmates and I closer together and made our time away from home that much easier.
Chocolate chip cookies are as American as baseball, hotdogs, and apple pie. Maybe we need a new logo change?
As American as baseball, hotdogs, apple pie...and chocolate chip cookies!
