Ruth Graves Wakefield, a trained dietitian and accomplished cook, was 27 when she and her husband purchased an old toll house and turned it into the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts. It was 1930 – the heat of the Great Depression. Despite such risky timing, the restaurant was a success especially among travelers, thanks to its location between Boston and Cape Cod.
According to Eater.Com, it soon became the spot for celebrities to visit when they were headed for the Cape — Joseph Kennedy Sr. was a big fan, and Cole Porter, Gloria Swanson, Joe DiMaggio, and Eleanor Roosevelt were among the many stars to dine there.
Wakefield’s desserts were very important at Toll House Inn, with standout dishes like a three-inch tall lemon meringue pie, Indian pudding, baba au rhum, and the rich butterscotch pecan rolls served in every breadbasket.
In 1938, she sought to offer her guests a new dessert. Experimenting with a popular cookie she was already serving regularly, she decided to add chopped pieces of Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate, expecting them to melt and create a chocolate-flavored cookie. Instead, the chocolate pieces retained their shape, resulting in the first batch of what she called “Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookies.”
The widespread belief that the cookie was created by accident is a myth. Wakefield deliberately developed the recipe to provide something different for her customers. She stated, “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.”
The cookie’s popularity soared, leading to a partnership with Nestlé. Wakefield allowed Nestlé to print her recipe on their packaging in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate – and a dollar. This collaboration also led to the creation of Nestlé’s chocolate ‘chips’, designed specifically for baking Wakefield’s recipe.
Now, as I’m almost positive every single one of you knows, I love baking chocolate chip cookies. And I definitely use Ruth’s Toll House recipe sometimes. I also have probably a dozen chocolate chip cookies recipes I love. Including a few of my own.
But here’s what I love about Ruth’s story. She was doing what she loved.
She was running an inn.
She was serving her guests.
She was baking desserts.
She was trying something different.
She was hoping to offer something new.
You’d think the story ends there — a smart woman, a lucky experiment, a famous partnership, and the most iconic cookie in America.
Of course, stories are rarely that clean.
Little did she know, other bakers were already on the same path.
In fact, according to Stella Parks, pastry chef and author of BraveTart, there’s evidence that in the early 1930s, years before Ruth’s cookie discovery, major grocery stores were already baking and selling cookies with bits of chocolate in them. The chocolate chip cookie likely evolved from a popular recipe called the chocolate jumble, which used shaved chocolate in the dough. Some home bakers started chopping the chocolate instead, and the chocolate chip cookie took shape from there.
Still, Ruth’s version is the one that is remembered.
Maybe it’s because her Inn had some attention. Maybe it’s because of the Nestlé deal. Maybe it’s because she shared her recipe freely — and it landed in enough kitchens, enough lives, enough memories — that it became the one that was passed along.
Austin Kleon reminds us that “What a good artist understands is that nothing comes from nowhere. All creative work builds on what came before.”
So if you’re not sure where to start…
Try starting with what you love.
Do it in your way.
Let your version exist in the world.
There is still space for your way of doing things.
I can’t wait to hear about it.
PS If you want her ‘original’ recipe, I’ve included it below.
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PPS If you liked this post – or any others, I’d love you to pass me and my work on to a friend. They can find out much more about me here if they’re interested!
