When: December 4
National Cookie Day on December 4 celebrates the baked treat that is deeply personal for every baker — from the perfect chocolate chip to the crisp shortbread.
Ruth Wakefield invented the chocolate chip cookie in 1938. She sold the recipe to Nestlé for a lifetime supply of chocolate. That deal did not age well.
Ruth Wakefield was not experimenting. She was making her standard butter cookies at the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts in 1938 when she broke a Nestlé chocolate bar into the dough expecting it to melt through and distribute evenly. It didn't melt. The chunks held their shape. She served the cookies anyway, and the guests asked for the recipe. The Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookie appeared in a Boston newspaper, spread to papers across the country, and sales of Nestlé Semi-Sweet chocolate bars increased sharply enough that Nestlé sent someone to find out why. They found Wakefield. They struck a deal: Nestlé would print her recipe on every package in exchange for the recipe rights and a lifetime supply of chocolate. She agreed. The Toll House recipe has appeared on Nestlé packaging for nearly ninety years, generating billions in chocolate sales. Wakefield received chocolate for life. The word "cookie" comes from the Dutch "koekje" — small cake — brought to New Amsterdam by...