National Chocolate Chip Day
On National Chocolate Chip Day, we recognize a morsel of a thing on National Chocolate Chip Day on May 15th.
Have you ever wondered how a single ingredient would change a dish? If it weren't for one particular baker, it would be difficult to imagine where we would be without chocolate chips.
Ruth Graves Wakefield of Whitman Massachusetts, 1937, must have been curious about what a little bit of chocolate would add to her cookies. She added chopped-up pieces of a semi-sweet Nestle chocolate bar to a cookie dish while working at Toll House Inn. The cookies were a huge success, and Wakefield signed an agreement with Nestle in 1939 to add her recipe to the chocolate bar's packaging. Wakefield was given a lifetime supply of chocolate in exchange for the dish. Inn was named for the Nestle brand Toll House cookies.
Nestle also included a small chopping knife with the chocolate bars. Nestle and other chocolate manufacturers began selling the chocolate in chip or morsel form in 1941. For the first time, bakers began making chocolate chip cookies without chopping up the chocolate bar first.
Chocolate chips were originally sold semi-sweet. Later, chocolate manufacturers began selling bittersweet, semi-sweet, mint, white chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white and dark swirled. Today, chips also come in a variety of other flavors that bakers and candy makers use creatively in their kitchens.
Although cookies are the first thing to come to mind, imagination is really the only thing limiting how chocolate chips can be used in baking and candy making. And yes, even savory dishes include chocolate chips in a variety of ways. Had Ruth Graves Wakefield never wondered what a few chopped up pieces of chocolate would look like in her baking; we didn't even have chocolate chip cookies.
How to celebrate #chocolatechipday
If you bake chocolate chip cookies or melt them down and begin dipping, be sure to celebrate! Make sweet treats to share or experiment with a new recipe. Dive into Grandma's recipe box and try an old favorite, too... Of course, be sure to post the best ones. CelebratingEveryDay is the most effective way to #CelebrateEveryDay. To post on social media, use #ChocolateChipDay..
