The British took a liking to them in the 19th century, incorporating them into their daily tea service and calling them biscuits or sweet buns, as they do in Scotland. Sometime in the 1930s, so the story goes, a Massachusetts innkeeper ran out of nuts while making cookies. Therefore, she substituted a bar of baking chocolate, breaking it into pieces and adding the chunks of chocolate to the flour, butter and brown sugar dough. The Toll House Cookie, so named after the inn in which it was served, was a hit. Historians credit the innkeeper, Ruth Wakefield, with inventing what has since become an American classic - the chocolate chip cookie.
Ingredients Following are the basic ingredients used in cookie making.
In addition to these, fruits, nuts, chocolates, candies and flavors are used to make the hundreds of cookie varieties that keep Americans asking for more. Different types of flours may be used in cookie making, depending on the mix. All-purpose flour also holds up better when egg yolks are used. A low-gluten cake flour blends easily with whipped egg whites, and results in puffier, softer cookies. A finely granulated sugar is preferred for most cookie mixes unless the recipe calls for something different.