Chocolate chips were created with the invention of chocolate chip cookies in 1937 when Ruth Graves Wakefield of the Toll House Inn in the town of Whitman, Massachusetts, added cut-up chunks of a semi-sweet Nestlé chocolate bar to a cookie recipe. The cookies were a huge success, and Wakefield reached an agreement in 1939 with Nestlé to add her recipe to the chocolate bar’s packaging in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate. Initially, Nestlé included a small chopping tool with the chocolate bars. In 1941, Nestlé and at least one of its competitors started selling the chocolate in “chip” (or “morsel”) form.
Originally, chocolate chips were made of semi-sweet chocolate, but today there are many flavors, including bittersweet, peanut butter, butterscotch, mint chocolate, white chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white and dark swirled chips.
Here are some of my favorite recipes.
Mom’s (z”l) Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yield: 5 dozen small
- ⅓ cup oil (Mom used ½ cup shortening)
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup white sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 package chocolate chips
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt (I eliminate this)
- 1⅛ cups flour
- ½ cup chopped nuts
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray cookie sheets with vegetable spray or
cover with parchment paper.
- 2. Combine oil, sugars and egg in a mixing bowl or food processor.
- 3. Add chocolate chips, baking soda, flour, nuts and vanilla and blend well.
- 3. Spoon on cookie sheets with teaspoon or tablespoon. Bake in preheated 375°F oven
8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on a rack.
Elisheva’s Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
I tasted these at a Hadassah-Israel meeting made by one of our members and had to have the recipe.
- 1 cup margarine or butter, softened (I use ¾ cup oil)
- 1¼ cups firmly packed brown sugar
- ½ cup white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoons milk (I use Rich’s non-dairy creamer or soy milk)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1¾ cups flour
- I eliminate the salt
- 2 cups uncooked oatmeal
- 1 package chocolate chips
- 1 cup coarsely chopped nuts (optional)
- 1. Preheat oven to 475°F. Place parchment paper on cookie sheets.
- 2. Beat margarine or butter and sugars until creamy in a bowl. Add eggs, milk and
vanilla. Beat well.
- 3. Add flour and baking soda and mix well.
- 4. Stir in oatmeal, chocolate chips and nuts and mix well.
- 5. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto cookie sheet. Bake in preheated 375°F oven.
Bake 9-10 minutes for a chewy cookie, 12-13 minutes for a crisp cookie.
Laura’s Chocolate Chip Mandel Bread
Yield: 48-64 pieces*
Laura is my long-time friend who lived many years on Long Island and now lives in Florida.
6 eggs
1½ cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 overflowing cup chocolate chips
2 tablespoons vanilla
Chopped walnuts
- 1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease a cookie sheet or sheets.
- 2. Mix together eggs, sugar and oil in a bowl.
- 3. Add flour and baking powder and blend.
- 4. Add chocolate chips, vanilla and nuts and blend. Break dough
into 6 footballs. Bake in preheated 375°F oven for 15 minutes.
- 5. Slice and reduce oven to 325°F. Bake 20 minutes more.
*¾ recipe makes 36
Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, author, compiler/editor of nine kosher cookbooks and food writer.
By Sybil Kaplan
