Brenda's Chocolate Chip Cookies
History and Recipe

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The addition of powdered rolled oats makes these exception chocolate chip cookies. These cookies are named after my daughter, Brenda, as she made these cookies for our family. This will definitely become your favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe!

The first chocolate chip cookies was invented in 1937 by Ruth Graves Wakefield (1905-1977), of Whitman, Massachusetts, who ran the Toll House Restaurant. The Toll House Restaurant site was once a real toll house built in 1709, where stage coach passengers ate a meal while horses were changed and a toll was taken for use of the highway between Boston and New Bedford, a prosperous whaling town. The Wakefields sold the restaurant in 1966. It burned down on New Year's Eve in 1984.

One of Ruth's favorite recipes was an old recipe for "Butter Drop Do" cookies that dated back to colonial times. The recipe called for the use of baker's chocolate. One day Ruth found herself without a needed ingredient. Having a bar of semisweet chocolate on hand, she chopped it into pieces and stirred the chunks of chocolate into the cookie dough. She assumed that the chocolate would melt and spread throughout each cookie. Instead the chocolate bits held their shape and created a sensation. She called her new creation the Toll House Crunch Cookies. The Toll House Crunch Cookies became very popular with guests at the inn, and soon her recipe was published in a Boston newspaper, as well as other papers in the New England area. <Word of the cookie spread and it became popular.

This cookie became known nationally when Betty Crocker used it in her radio series on "Famous Foods From Famous Eating Places" in 1939. Ruth approached the Nestle company and together, they reached an agreement that allowed Nestle to print what would become the Toll House Cookie recipe on the wrapper of the Semi-Sweet Chocolate Bar. The company developed a scored semisweet chocolate bar with a small cutting implement so that making the chocolate chunks would be easier. According to the story, part of this agreement included supplying Ruth with all of the chocolate she could use to make her delicious cookies for the rest of her life. In the 1940s, Ruth sold all legal rights to the use of the Toll House trademark to Nestle. On August 25, 1983, the Nestle Company lost its exclusive right to the trademark in federal court. Toll house is now a descriptive term for a cookie.

Official State Cookies: -

• A group of fourth-grade students at Caln Elementary School in Coatesville introduced a resolution to designate the chocolate chip cookie as the official state cookie of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1996.
   
• A third grade class from Somerset, Massachusetts proposed  that the chocolate chip cookie be designated the official cookie of the Commonwealth. The chocolate chip cookie was designated the official cookie of the Commonwealth on July 9, 1997 under the General Laws of Massachusetts.

• Senate Bill 271 was introduced  on February 1, 1999 to designate and adopt the chocolate chip cookie as the official cookie of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The House is supporting the Nazareth sugar cookie, in a bill sponsored by eight representatives, including Moon Township's state Rep. and Senator-elect John Pippy.

• Another Senate Bill 320 was introduced by Thompson, Helfrick, M. White, Greenleaf, Rafferty, and C. Williams on February 13,  2003 to designate and adopt the chocolate chip cookie as the official cookie of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The House and Senate have been in disagreement or debate since these bills were introduced. The bills have been tabled.

Check out more of Linda's favorite Cookie Recipes and Secrets To Making Perfect Cookies, lots of Chocolate Recipes.

5 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 cups firmly-packed brown sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 (24-ounce) package semisweet chocolate chips
3 cups chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease cookie sheets. Make a powder out of the rolled oats by putting small amounts into the blender or food processor at a time.

In a large bowl, combine powdered rolled oats, flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.

In another large bowl, blend butter, sugar, and brown sugar until light and creamy; stir in eggs and vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture; stir until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

Roll dough into golf-ball-sized cookies. Place 2 inches apart onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake 15 minutes or until light brown. Remove from oven and cool on wire racks.

Yields 8 1/2 dozen cookies.