5 Things You Didn't Know About Chocolate Chip Cookies

Who doesn't love chocolate chip cookies? Whether crunchy and store-bought or soft and gooey right out of your home oven, this classic American dessert is just about impossible not to love. Here are five facts we bet you didn't know about this legendary drop cookie.

It Was First Called The Chocolate Crunch Cookie
The owner of a popular Massachusetts restaurant called the Toll House Inn, a woman named Ruth Wakefield, is credited with inventing the cookie in the 1930s. The recipe first appeared in print in the 1938 edition of her cookbook, Toll House Tried and True Recipes, as the "Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookie."

Their Origin Story Has a Couple Different Versions
There are a few different versions of the famed cookie's origin story. One states that Wakefield substituted Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate in cookies after running out of baker's chocolate, thinking that they'd melt; another says that the vibrations from a large mixer dislodged Nestlé's chocolate from the shelf above it, dumping the chocolate into the batter in a stroke of good luck; Wafefield herself maintained that she knew exactly what she was doing when she first added chocolate chunks to her cookie batter, knowing that they wouldn't melt.

They Really Caught on During WWII
The cookies remained a regional treat until the war, when soldiers from Massachusetts shared the cookies (which they'd received in care packages) with their fellow soldiers. This led to many soldiers writing home asking for their families to send them cookies, and Wakefield received thousands of letters asking for her recipe.

Wakefield's Recipe Is On the Back of Every Bag of Nestlé Chocolate Chips
In exchange for the rights to reproduce the recipe, Nestlé provided Wakefield with a lifetime supply of chocolate.

Egg Substitutes Are Used in Cookie Dough Ice Cream
Because ice cream companies can't put raw eggs into the dough, they use pasteurized eggs. Ben & Jerry's was the first to market the product, and if you remove the cookie dough and bake it, you'll get real cookies!