No one seems to know the origins of Homemade Cookies Day, but it might be related to the fact that October 1, 1925 is the Anniversary of the New York Cocoa Exchange. Whatever. Far be it from me to pass up an opportunity to celebrate cookie dough.
Any celebration related to cookies, however, must pay homage to Ruth Graves Wakefield, who invented the chocolate chip cookie.
As you may know, in 1937, while preparing the rather oddly named “Butter Drop Do Cookies” for her Toll House Inn, Mrs. Wakefield ran out of baker’s chocolate. Evincing the American ingenuity we celebrate, she chopped up a bar of Nestlé Semi-Sweet Chocolate into tiny pieces and added the pieces to the dough. They didn’t melt as she had expected, but nevertheless, the cookies – rechristened Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookies – were a phenomenal hit. Sales of semi-sweet chocolate skyrocketed, and eventually, Mrs. Wakefield and Nestlé reached an agreement allowing Nestlé to print the recipe on the chocolate bar. (They did, however, leave out the little bit of information that, as Mrs. Wakefield wrote in her Toll House Cook Book, “at Toll House, we chill this dough overnight.” Apparently chilling the dough makes the cookies brown more evenly.) In 1939, Nestlé came up with the morsels, and the rest is homemade cookie history.
I hope you will join me in celebrating this most important holiday by baking homemade cookies!
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You can count on me! First it was Snickerdoodles over at Trish’s and now you’re tempting me with Toll House…. maybe I’ll have to make both!
Well howdy do! I had NO idea when I posted my snickerdoodles that today was Homemade Cookies Day. Maybe at lunch I can edit my post to mention this!
PS–Toll House receipe is my favorite for chocolate chip cookies. Always reminds me of that Friends episode where Monica is trying to recreate Phoebe’s Grandmother’s cookies and finally learns they’re Toll House.
Oh, yes. I love cookies and this cookie post! I actually just got a wonderful book called Cookielicious, and it looks like it has some amazing recipes in it that I am going to have to try. During the school year, I try to have fresh baked cookies ready for my kids when they get home from school everyday. It doesn’t always work out, but when it does, they really appreciate it! Great post and photos!
Ohhhh this is the best holiday I’ve ever heard of. 😀 Those cookies look so good. Today’s my husband’s last day of work too – maybe we’ll make some!
Oh, I don’t turn down a good cookie! YUM!!!!
Uh-oh! This is going to give Dave another reason to give me a hard time if he finds out. I needed to lose weight and absolutely had to give up sweets to do it. So, I haven’t been baking either and he’s VERY put out, keeps hinting how good my pies are, etc. Since he’s the cookie baker though, I told him he’d just have to bake his own sweets. BTW, I have lost 22 lbs. since last winter.
OMG! 😉 I have a friend coming over for a “dessert buffet” tonight and I am planning to make cookies! How fortuitous!
I am now hungry for cookie dough. Perhaps instead of going out with my friends tonight, I will stay home and eat cookie dough and watch a movie. It is mildly embarrassing how appealing this plan sounds. :p
Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I’m sitting here going through my reader while drinking a cup of coffee. A homemade cookie would sure be a treat!
Jill, I like how you think!!!
Yum! I really want cookies now!
I used to make homemade cookies all the time, but something happened. Now I have a tub of Toll House Cookie Dough (a Costco purchase) at the ready whenever we need a quick fix! I’m not telling my kids about Heather, or they will further declare me a bad mommy!
I had no idea it was Homemade Cookies Day! Too bad I won’t have time after work to bake. I promised the hubby I’d go to his bowling tournament. Maybe we’ll be a day late. 😉
I’d never heard of homemade cookie day, but who am I not to celebrate an important holiday like that?
Looks delicious to me!
Now here’s a special day we can all rally around. I like Mrs, Wakefield’s tip on refrigerating the cookies over night. I’ve been doing that for years but didn’t know it was for a good reason. I thought it was because I was too lazy to do the whole thing at one time. btw, your cookies look delicious, even the dough.
I never knew the background history of my ultimate favorite cookie!! Yummy!
My mouth uis watering! You’ll be sending me some, right?
is. Uis looks gaelic, and I definitely don’t speak Gaelic.
Oh MY GOD … I want to reach into the screen and eat all that cookie dough batter.
Thanks for the tip on the refrigerating the dough … I’ll have to try that. Of course, by the morning, the dough will all be gone.
Another one of your mouth watering food / cooking post. I hope you invite us to have some cookies and tea. 😉
Now I want some cookies! Thanks for another great post!
I looooove chocolate chip cookies; those pictures look delicious.
Missed this one! I had a good excuse, though – stomach flu, ugh. The husband is currently working his way through a vegan cookie book, and surprisingly, vegan cookies are also very tasty!
I barely made it through all of the text because I kept looking at the yummy pics. I’m running out of time to eat for two!