American Cookie #7 {Ruth Wakefield's 1930's Era Chocolate Crunch Cookies and The Origin of The Chocolate Chip Cookie!}

 Each week, I'm going to be highlighting a new American Cookie and sharing its history, as well as my results. This is the seventh week of baking with American Cookie by Anne Byrn, and I'm sharing Ruth Wakefield's Chocolate Crunch Cookies, which is essentially a chocolate chip cookie!

The History of Chocolate Crunch (Chip) Cookies: The history of the chocolate crunch, or chocolate chip cookie, starts with a woman named Ruth Graves Wakefield. Ruth worked at the Toll House Inn located in Whitman, Massachusetts. One day, Ruth ran out of cocoa for her chocolate jumble cookies and needed to make a substitution. It was the late 1930's, which was still the Depression Era, and cooks were making do with what they had on hand and frequently making substitutions.

Ruth found two chocolate bars which she chopped up and folded into her cookie dough. She thought the chocolate would melt as the cookies baked, but it didn't! And just like that, the Toll House Cookies we all know and love were born! Ruth didn't know it at the time, but this new recipe would turn the cookie world upside down! Nestle made a deal with Ruth, giving her a lifetime supply of chocolate if Ruth would let them put the recipe on the back of the chocolate bar. Before long the chocolate bar turned into chocolate chips and the cookies were renamed.

Here is the original recipe for the cookies the changed the world! It comes from the 1938 Ruth Wakefield's Toll House Tried and True Recipes book. Something different about this original recipe is that you dissolve the baking soda in hot water, which was how it was done in the Toll House Inn back in the 1930's.

My Results: These cookies are total perfection! I've said it before, and I'll say it again, but Anne Byrn's American Cookie cookbook produces cookies that are just complete perfection, time after time. This recipe has loads of chocolate, which we loved! I had never dissolved baking soda into hot water before when making cookies so I found it interesting. I'm not sure that it makes a difference, but it's an easy step which I was happy to try. These cookies are chewy and loaded with chocolate chips. I'm pretty sure this is my new favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe!

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars! Total perfection, tons of chocolate, and they really satisfy! I will definitely be making them again!

I'm going to be rating all the cookies with the five-star format, one-star being the lowest rating and five-star being the highest!

 Ruth Wakefield's Chocolate Crunch Cookies

Recipe adapted from American Cookie

by Anne Byrn

Makes 6 to 7 dozen 2" cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed*

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon hot water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 to 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts*

1 pound semisweet chocolate, chopped (or chocolate chips)

Note: I only had light brown sugar so I used that. In the notes of the cookbook it said you could use either dark brown or light brown sugar. My son is allergic to nuts, and I can't eat them, so I left them out of the recipe. I also didn't have chocolate bars on hand, but I did have chocolate chips so I used those. Either would be fine! It calls for 2 to 2-1/4 cups flour. I wasn't sure what to here so I split the difference and used 2-1/8 cups. Go with your gut and make it your own! In addition, I chilled my cookie dough for about an hour. I've learned while cooking from this book that I always pays to chill your cookie dough, even if the recipe doesn't call for it!

Place a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat the oven to 375F. Set aside 2 baking sheets, covered with parchment paper.

Place the soft butter and sugars in a large bowl and beat with a mixer on medium-high speed until creamy and light, 1 to 1-1/2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until just combined.

Place the baking soda in a small measuring cup and stir in the teaspoon of hot water to dissolve the soda. Spoon this into the butter and sugar mixture along with the vanilla. Beat on low speed until just combined, 15 seconds. Whisk together the flour and salt in a medium-size bowl, and add to the batter, beating on low speed until just combined. Turn off the mixer, and fold in the nuts (if using) and chocolate with the spatula until well distributed (I like to use a wooden spoon).

Drop the dough by teaspoons onto the baking sheets, (I like to use a small cookie scoop) spacing the dough about 2" apart (I baked about 6 cookies per sheet, but my cookies were a little bigger than the recipes calls for). Place 1 pan in the oven.

Bake the cookies until lightly golden brown, 7 to 9 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and transfer the cookies to wire racks. Repeat baking with the remaining dough, making sure you allow your sheet pans to cool down before adding the dough (a hot pan will melt the dough and make your cookies spread out and become too crisp). Store the cookies in an airtight container.