Tasty Tuesday - Chocolate Chip Cookie Fun Facts

Grandma said the quickest way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

My best friend's mom made the best cookies in the world. Unfortunately she took the recipe to the grave. I miss Mom Carlyon and her cookies. Cooking and baking is actually a science and I've narrowed my "tests" to one closest resembling her recipe.  

These cookies spread out too much 

so we have to eat these up before I can try another batch. 

So enjoy a cookie and some trivia about chocolate chip cookies.

• Ruth and Kenneth Wakefield sold the Toll House Inn in 1966 and the new owners turned the building into a nightclub. In 1970, the Saccone family bought the building and restored it to its original 1700's Cape Code style. On New Year’s Eve, 1984, the Toll House burned to the ground and was never rebuilt. The site, the birthplace of the first chocolate chip cookie, is marked with a sign and is now home to an ice cream shop.

• There are 7 billion chocolate chip cookies eaten in the United States every year, with about 50% of those homemade cookies.

• Nabisco’s “Chips Ahoy” Chocolate Chip cookies are the second highest selling cookie in the United States. Oreos hold the number 1 slot.

• The Chocolate Chip Cookie is the official state cookie of both Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania “state cookie” status was proposed in 1996 by 4th Grade students at Caln Elementary school. Previously, the officially named state cookie of Pennsylvania had been tied up in a legislative battle between the Nazareth sugar cookie and the oatmeal chocolate chip cookie.

• The world’s largest cookie was a chocolate chip cookie, made by the Immaculate Baking Company on May 17, 2003 in Flat Rock, North Carolina. It was 40,000 pounds and 102 feet in diameter. The giant cookie was broken up and sold in commemorative boxes, raising $20,000 for the Folk Artists Foundation Museum. The record was officially recognized by Guinness World Records in 2008. Previously, the record for the world’s biggest cookie was also a chocolate chip cookie, an 81 foot diameter cookie made by New Zealand’s Cookie Time Company in 1996.

• If it wasn’t for airplay on The Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air, the Wakefield chocolate crunch recipe may not have risen to fame quite so quickly. Betty Crocker is not and has never been a real person. The radio program that launched the chocolate chip cookie to legendary status was voiced and scripted by home economist Marjorie Child Husted, who was also responsible for inventing the Betty Crocker brand character.

*This post was previously published, 4/11/17

Tasty Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies are a favorite comfort food. But if you're like me, I'm tired of making the same-old-same-old. Quarantine 2020 is providing many opportunities for experimental baking. Since my sons are all around, I have plenty of willing taste testers.

During this time, I recommend having some fun in the kitchen with your honey.  Pour each of you a glass of wine. Wear matching aprons. Feel free to get a little silly... remember when you first were living together?

I found this unique recipe and didn't tell son #2 about the cream cheese, (he hates the stuff). The addition of cream cheese gives these chocolate chip cookies a rich, dense, cake-like texture. 

Give it a try!

Ingredients:

• 4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 4 ounces butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or milk chocolate chips

Preparation:

·         Heat oven to 350°. Grease a cookie sheet, or spray with nonstick cooking spray, or line with silicone liner.

·         In a mixing bowl with electric mixer, beat cream cheese, butter, and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla until smooth. Slowly beat in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Fold in chocolate chips.

·         Drop by teaspoonfuls onto prepared baking sheet(s), leaving about 1 inch between cookies. These cookies spread very little. Bake for 10 to 14 minutes, or until the cookies are set and lightly browned around the edges.

·         Makes 2 1/2 to 3 dozen cookies.

Tasty Tuesday - Cake Mix Cookies

Other than being an author, I'm a mom to three boys...all athletes and involved in everything. Son #2 is on a school baseball team that plays double-headers regularly. A friend of mine cooks up hotdogs for the boys, others bring chips and I make cookies.

Being a busy mom I'm lucky the boys favorite cookie is one of the easiest to make. The boys like the flavor of the French Vanilla and the soft, chewy texture I create by taking the cookies out after baking for 10 min.

1 box French Vanilla cake mix
1/2 cup of oil
2 eggs
2 Tbsp water
1 cup of chocolate chips (I add a little more)

Mix well and drop by teaspoon onto a prepared cookie sheet. (I use parchment paper).
Bake at 350 for 10 - 12 min,
Let the cookies cool for a few minutes before removing off the sheet. Place on rack to continue cooling.

Warning: the cookie dough is really yummy and may be eaten if kids are around

TIP: have your honey help you make these sweet treats and enjoy them warm with a glass of milk.