Toll house cookies were created in the 1930s by Ruth Wakefield, who with her husband Ken ran the Toll House Inn in a historic building on the outskirts of Whitman Massachusetts. Ruth cooked and baked for the Inn's guests, and soon gained a reputation for her excellent desserts. One inspirational day she conceived the idea of cutting up a Nestle's semisweet chocolate bar and tossing the chips in her basic butter cookie dough. She thought the chips would melt through the cookies, but they didn't, instead forming soft creamy pockets of chocolate throughout cookies. These gems quickly became very popular. Ruth published the recipe in Boston newspaper, from whence it began to spread across New England and into the sights of the Nestle corporation.
Soon Ruth and Nestle reached an agreement that would allow them print the recipe on the wrapper of their bars, which now had a scored surface and a special chopper to allow customers to easily cut it into morsels. Ruth received an undisclosed sum and a lifetime supply of chocolate. By 1939 Nestle was selling chocolate chips in packages, and the rest, as they say, is history. Chocolate chip cookies are now America's favourite cookie.
Rather than scoop Ruth's original recipe, I direct you to
http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/recipe_template.asp?id=614
where you'll find it in all its glory. | 
