1. Chocolate Chip Cookies

2. Chocolate chip cookies are one the the most traditional (and yummy!) American foods, and if you have ever eaten some, you can certainly understand why.

3. Now, did you know that this super yummy treat was born from a mistake? YES! Here is the story:

4. It was a lady called Ruth Graves Wakefield that invented chocolate chip cookies.

5. In 1933, Ruth and her husband Kenneth had an inn in Massachusetts, where Ruth cooked for all of her guests.

6. She was a good cook and started to become famous in the area for her desserts.

7. One day, she was preparing some Butter Drop Do Cookies for her travelers, when she realized that she didn’t have the Baker’s Chocolate that the recipe called for. (Baker’s Chocolate is a special kind of chocolate used for baking that melts completely.)

8. What Ruth had was some Nestlé’s Semi- Sweet Chocolate bars, so she chopped some up and mixed it into the dough she was preparing.

9. Well, can you guess the rest of the story?

10. The chocolate did not melt into the dough like Ruth had expected. Instead, it softened and left little “pockets” of chocolate in the cookies.

11. Thank heavens Ruth decided to serve the cookies anyway; and so history was made!

12. Everyone loved them, and they became so popular that Ruth even published her recipe in the newspapers! They were called “Toll House Crunch Cookies”

13. As the recipe spread and became popular, so did the Nestlé semi- sweet chocolate bars.

14. So Nestlé bought the right to print Ruth’s recipe and created the “Toll House Chocolate Chips”

15. Which are simply the most famous chocolate chips in the US, to this day.

16. In exchange, Ruth got a lifetime supply of chocolate for all of her baking needs!

17. And we got one of the most delicious treats ever. There’s nothing better than warm chocolate chip cookies with a glass of cold milk.

18. Today, some seven billion chocolate chip cookies are consumed every year in the US. That’s a lot of cookies!

19. If you have already tasted one, I am sure you will join me in saying “Thank you, Ruth, for making that mistake and not throwing those cookies in the trash that day!”

20. Now, if you want the recipe for the Original Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies, you, or your parent, can come to our first Cooking Class, and we will make some! (Produced by Monica Cardoso and Alice Bello)