Chocolate is Good--Very, Very Good--But Sometimes You Need a Little Help

Poor Ruth Wakefield.

Now, I don’t remember ever turning down chocolate. But if I had invented the chocolate chip cookie, accidentally or otherwise (the baker’s chocolate Ruth always used in her cookies had run out, she had a chocolate bar around, which she broke into, as the late, great Gilda Radner might have said, “little teeny-tiny pieces,” they didn’t melt all the way but made—you guessed it—“chips”), here’s hoping I would have remembered why God invented consultants, lawyers, and other forms of aid and comfort.

Let’s go back in time to 1930 and listen in on a little conversation taking place at or near the Toll House Inn, which Ruth has recently bought.

“Oy! I am kvelling!” says Ruth, looking at her cookies and perhaps tasting several, in the interest of science.

Hi. It’s New England. Think “Yankee.”

 

“Not bad,” said Ruth Wakefield to a friend, as she cast an approving glance at her freshly-baked cookies.

“Ruth, that is just grand,” said the friend, whose name happened to be Andrew Nestle, and who had given her that particular chocolate bar, made by his very own company. “And you know what we’re going to do for you, Ruth? We’ll take that recipe and put it on our label. We’ll call them ‘Toll House Cookies.’ And guess what, Ruth? We’re going to give you a lifetime supply of chocolate!”

You say that makes you think of a transaction involving a bit of real estate known as “Manhattan”?

No, honey, that involved something called “wampum.” This here was chocolate. Remember, when we first met Ruth, she was running out of chocolate. Problem solved.¹ Let’s make cookies.

Cinnamon-Chocolate Chip Refrigerator Cookies (from the Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Library’s Cookies & Biscotti, Chuck Williams, Editor; Recipes, Kristine Kidd; makes about 4 dozen—well, 3½ dozen, once you deduct the samples)

¾ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup granulated sugar
1½ teaspoons grated orange zest
1¼ teaspoons ground cinnamon (the fresher, the better. Grind your own, if you can. I also like Trader Joe's cinnamon.).
¼ teaspoon salt
2 egg yolks
1¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips (Guittard chips are heavenly; if you can’t get the miniature ones, just chop the regular-sized ones into smaller pieces)
Cinnamon sugar (½ cup granulated sugar, combined with 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon).

Combine the butter, granulated sugar, orange zest, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl. Using an electric mixer set on high speed, beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks and beat until light and fluffy. Reduce the speed to low, add the flour and chocolate chips and mix just until incorporated.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Divide in half. Roll each piece between your palms and the work surface to form a log 1½ inches in diameter. Wrap the logs tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour or as long as overnight.

Preheat an oven to 350° F. Lightly butter baking sheets. Unwrap the dough and cut each log into rounds ¼ inch thick—unless you are Diane Davis, in which case you will be rolling out the dough as one long ¼ inch thick sheet, and then cutting out little snowflakes and saving a half-dozen for “Love at First Bite.” (Hey, we don’t get a commission. We might settle for a lifetime supply of chocolate, though. [Valrhona 71%, thanks.]).

Where were we? Oh, right, we were about to transfer the dough to the prepared baking sheets, and space them 1½ inches apart. Consider it done.

Now bake them until the edges are brown, about 15 minutes. Transfer the cookies to wire racks and let cool for 5 minutes.

Put the cinnamon sugar in a bowl. Add several warm cookies and toss to coat with the sugar. Return the cookies to the racks to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining cookies. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

They should only last that long.

¹Maybe the problem really was solved. In 1936 Ruth came out with a cookbook that took off four years later, and ultimately went through 39 printings. And she probably did a whole lot of baking at the Toll House Inn. Wikipedia makes it sound as though trading the recipe for chocolate was Ruth’s idea. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Graves_Wakefield (Of course, we don’t know who wrote that entry.) Perhaps it was. Now, some might ask, “How many people have heard of ‘Toll House Cookies’? And how many have heard of Ruth Wakefield?”  

So did Ruth make a good deal, in the end? Discuss. Over cookies, of course.

©2011, 2013, 2014, 2015 Laynie Tzena.