Ask Margaret
by Margaret Word Burnside
What can you tell me about chocolate chip
cookies, which are my all-time favorites?
M.P., Tampa
Chocolate chip cookies happen to be my favorites as well,
so I’m thrilled to share information about them, as well as
to sample the cookies baked by The Stuffed Mushroom for
this article’s photo.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
star ted out , and are st i l l
traditionally known as Toll
House Cookies. Their basic
ingredients are a fat, such
as shortening or butter that
has been creamed with both
white and brown sugar, vanilla
extract, and eggs; a mixture of
flour, a leavening agent, such
as baking soda, and salt; and
finally, pieces of chocolate or
chocolate chips. Spoonfuls of
the resulting dough are then
dropped onto baking sheets,
baked, slightly cooled and
enjoyed.
As the story goes, these
tasty cookies were originated
by Ruth Graves Wakefield, who
in the 1930s, had purchased a
vintage Cape Cod-style house
near Whitman, Massachusetts
with her husband. They christened
it the Toll House Inn,
since it had supposedly once
been a place for travel-weary
Urban legend has it that original Toll House Cookies
were actually the result of a happy accident.
94 TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015