The Crazy Origin Of Chocolate Chips

Everyone loves a good homemade chocolate chip cookie. They're simple, sweet, and iconically American — and they pair perfectly with a cold glass of milk. The original Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie recipe that appears on the back of every bag of semi-sweet chocolate morsels is the go-to recipe for many; the fail-safe recipe was created by Ruth Graves Wakefield in 1937 and sold to Nestle for one dollar and a lifetime supply of chocolate.

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It is by no means an unknown origin story, but one detail in particular seems to be frequently overlooked. You see, the chocolate chip cookie was actually invented before the chocolate chip — how's that for a bizarre twist of fate!

That's right, the chocolate chip wasn't actually invented until 1941, a full four years after Ruth Graves Wakefield decided to add cut-up pieces of a Nestle chocolate bar to her cookie dough. Until 1941, Nestle sold its chocolate bars with a special chopping tool so that customers could make their own chocolate chips for the increasingly famous Toll House cookies at home. Because of the popularity of Wakefield's recipe, Nestle finally began to sell their famous chocolate morsels and continued to sell the full bars of chocolate.

So there you have it, in the case of which came first, it turns out that the cookie came before the chip, and aren't we glad it did. With chocolate chips and all of the subsequent variation like peanut butter, butterscotch, white chocolate and more, a whole new world of sweet delights was created, so don't wait another minute — jump right in with these 21 irresistible chocolate chip dessert recipes.