Mar 09 2007
Eating with famous women
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It’s been very challenging to find recipes to celebrate Women’s History Month. Instead, I found a culinary history book called, Dinners with Famous Women: From Cleopatra to Indira Gandhi
But did you know that chocolate chip cookies were invented by a woman - Ruth Wakefield? Before 1930 chocolate chip cookies didn’t exist. From the Lemelson-MIT Inventor of the Week website:
One of Ruth’s favorite recipes was for Butter Drop Do cookies. As she prepared the batter one day she discovered she had run out of baker’s chocolate. She found a semi-sweet chocolate bar that had been given to her by Andrew Nestle, and so she cut it into tiny bits and added them to the dough, expecting them to melt as the cookies baked in the oven. However, the chocolate did not melt. Instead, it held its shape and softened to a delicately creamy texture. Needless to say, the cookies Ruth had created 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.
Meanwhile, Nestle saw sales of its Semi-Sweet Chocolate Bar jump dramatically, and Ruth and Nestle came together to reach an agreement that would allow Nestle to print the “Toll House Cookie” recipe on its packaging. Part of this agreement included supplying Ruth with all of the chocolate she could use for the rest of her life.
Nestle, meanwhile, began scoring the Semi-Sweet Chocolate Bar, and packaged it with a special chopper for easily cutting it into small morsels. Then, in 1939, Nestle had a better idea, and began offering Nestlé Toll House Real Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels. The rest is “chocolate-chip” history.
Some one call the Pope and make this woman a saint. What would we all do without the comfort of a good chocolate chip cookie? Here’s the world-famous recipe. Thanks Ruth and Mr. Nestle.
Original Nestlé Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies
Estimated Times: Preparation - 15 min | Cooking - 9 min | Cooling Time - 15 min
Yields - 60
This famous classic American cookie is a treat no matter what the age or occasion. Enjoy it with a glass of cold milk.
Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
- 1 cup chopped nuts
Directions:
- PREHEAT oven to 375° F.
- COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.
- BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.
PAN COOKIE VARIATION: Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan. Prepare dough as above. Spread into prepared pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pan on wire rack. Makes 4 dozen bars.
SLICE AND BAKE COOKIE VARIATION: PREPARE dough as above. Divide in half; wrap in waxed paper. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm. Shape each half into 15-inch log; wrap in waxed paper. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.* Preheat oven to 375° F. Cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices; place on ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Makes about 5 dozen cookies.
* May be stored in refrigerator for up to 1 week or in freezer for up to 8 weeks.
FOR HIGH ALTITUDE BAKING (5,200 feet): Increase flour to 2 1/2 cups. Add 2 teaspoons water with flour and reduce both granulated sugar and brown sugar to 2/3 cup each. Bake drop cookies for 8 to 10 minutes and pan cookie for 17 to 19 minutes.
Cookies photograph courtesy of of Publications International, LTD.
Can I give a caution about this book? I would borrow it from the library before I bought it, simply because it gives food history for places and times about which we know very little. If I see a copy I’ll check if the writer knows sources I know nothing of, but otherwise it might be one of those fun volumes that aren’t entirely reliable. Chapter 1 is particularly liable to error, though I’m also fascinated by what the writer makes of the Middle Ages. Where we only have one recorded cookbook (or even none) to cover hundreds of years and three countries, we can’t know what an individual ate unless it’s - say - at a particular coronation where the menu gets recroded. Writing down menus is something that happens increasingly frequently the closer we get to the present. It’s a fascinating concept for a book, however, and I love the choc-chip cookie information. You can never have too many chocolate-chip biscuit recipes :).
Gillian has some good points here. I got my copy of the book and it’s more based on the author’s study of culinary history than necessarily a real meal the women ate.
She gives historical facts (like tomatoes were from the New World) and a recipe that gives the reader a feel for something close to what these real people in history may have eaten.
The recipes are practical – you can make them at home with readily available ingredients. So I would say this is a book for entertainment, discussion, and thinking about the people and times involved.
Think of it like having a book club party – like I did recently with my friends. We read A Passage to India and I made curry (http://mamarant.blogs.com/mamacooks/2007/01/weight_watchers.html), a red dahl soup (http://mamarant.blogs.com/mamacooks/2007/01/cooking_lights__1.html), another gal made chana masala (http://mamarant.blogs.com/mamacooks/2007/02/chana_masala_an.html) and others brought Indian bread from a local restaurant. It set the mood, and made for good conversation.
So have fun with Eating With Famous Women and let the food bring you back in time.
Carnival of Chocolate - Edition #4
Welcome to the April 17, 2007 edition of carnival of chocolate. Check out these yummy articles!
Anne-Marie presents Eating with famous women posted at A Readable Feast.
The Crazy King of Clowns presents Chocolateism posted at Infinitely CRAZY.
choco…