Quest for the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie

The chocolate chip cookie. To call it the perfect food may be a slight exaggeration, but it is definitely up there.  Many, if not most, Americans grew up with these treats; they are a strong piece of the American food identity. In fact, they are America’s favorite cookie: 53 percent of American adults prefer chocolate chip cookies, as opposed to peanut butter cookies (16 percent), oatmeal cookies (15 percent) or any other variety. Who doesn’t love a warm, ooey gooey chewy cookie oozing with melted chocolate?

It’s hard to believe that the cookie is not even 100 years old. In fact, we have at least one politician currently serving in the U.S. Senate that is older than chocolate chip cookies, as Twitter user Charlotte Alter informed us.

Ballotpedia runs an annual Holiday Cookie election, and in 2022, the chocolate chip cookie ran as the incumbent “nom-nominee,” though it unfortunately didn’t make it past the primary this time. It was first elected Official Holiday Cookie in 2019, holding the office for a single term. In 2021, Chocolate Chip Cookie was re-elected after Sugar Cookie was recalled.

The chocolate chip cookie even has its own special day: August 4 is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day. The day is celebrated by making and/or eating chocolate chip cookies. Mark your calendars!

History of the Cookie

In 1938, Ruth Graves Wakefield decided to offer something a little different to the guests of the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Mass., which she and her husband owned. She and chef Sue Brides chopped up a Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate bar and added it to a cookie batter, creating what they called the Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookie, which was intended to accompany ice cream.

For years, rumors have abounded that the creation of the chocolate chip cookie was an accident. These stories claim that Wakefield expected the chocolate to melt and create a chocolate cookie, only to be surprised at the result. But that isn’t the case. The Chocolate Crunch Cookie was an intentional creation.

Wakefield would later give the recipe to Nestlé, reportedly for the price of $1 plus a lifetime supply of chocolate, though Wakefield claimed that she never received that dollar. She did get the chocolate, though.

Nestlé printed the recipe on the packaging of the semi-sweet chocolate bar and also offered a tool to break the bar into pieces to be used in the buyer’s own cookies, before eventually creating the modern-day chocolate chip in 1941.

Sue Brides’ daughter, Peg, shared the original recipe with Maria Stephanos of WCVB of Boston in 2017. The recipe is not the same one that we see on the Nestlé Toll House chocolate chips bags now: the proportions are different and even some ingredients are different.

Unfortunately, the Toll House Inn burned down from a fire that began in the kitchen on New Year’s Eve of 1984. The Inn was not rebuilt. Instead, a Wendy’s now sits in that space, but a historical marker and commemorative plaque mark the site.

Timeline of the Cookie

Socioeconomics of the Cookie

Data Intelo’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Market Research shows “The global chocolate chip cookies market is projected to grow from USD 12 billion in 2018 to USD 18.7 billion by 2030.” Unsurprisingly, they also say that, with a share of nearly 41%, the North American region is the largest market. Boost Agency reports that one in five Americans eat more than three cookies per day on average, while 95% of Americans eat a cookie every month.

Companies are also trying to increase the reach (and their profits) by providing ingredients for people with different dietary concerns. Nestlé recently announced that they are going to be introducing plant-based chocolate chips to make it easier for vegans to enjoy chocolate chip cookies. And they are not the only company to make vegan chocolate chips. There are dairy-free chips, sugar-free chocolate chips, egg substitutes, butter substitutes, alternate (non-wheat) flours and pretty much everything else you can imagine to adapt a recipe for a certain diet. Whether they taste good may be a different question.

Though chocolate chip cookies have always been considered an accessible treat, the cost of the ingredients to make cookies has gone up. Data from the Labor Department shows that the cost of eggs and margarine jumped up 50% from November 2021 through the end of 2022. Flour and baking mixes went up 25% in that same time period.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the cost of chocolate chip cookies has gone up. Their data measures chocolate chip cookies regardless of packaging size or type, and includes those with raisins, nuts, icing, or other similar features, as well as organic and non-organic cookies.

With the increased cost of ingredients, making cookies is more expensive. Calculator Academy has created a Cookie Cost Calculator to break down how much each cookie you make costs, while Be the Budget gives advice on how much to charge per cookie if you decide to sell them.

But the cookie business is hard work. Wally Amos, founder of the Famous Amos cookie company, lost control of his own business, and in the process lost the right to use his own name. He founded the company in 1975 and sold $300,000 in cookies that year. The company reached $12 million in revenue by 1982. He was given one of the first Awards of Entrepreneurial Excellence by President Ronald Reagan in 1986.

But Amos was a high school dropout who didn’t know much about running a business and didn’t hire anyone who did. Investors stepped in to help, but Amos said each time they took more of his equity stake but never stuck around long enough to actually fix the issues. The company lost $2.5 million in 1988 and then was bought for $3 million by the Shansby Group,

The Shansby Group managed to turn the business around, pushing vending machine sales and cutting costs. Then they sold the company to President Baking in 1992 for $61 million, and then Keebler acquired the business in 1998.

In 1992, Amos tried selling cookies again using the name Wally Amos Presents, but Famous Amos sued, so he changed his brand to Uncle Noname. The cookie business is competitive, and Amos couldn’t keep up. In 1997, Uncle Noname filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

In March 1999, Keebler hired Amos to once again be spokesman of the brand he began, though he required that the recipe be adjusted to be more similar to what he had made rather than the changes the successive owners had made. Keebler obliged.

Amos has also started a line of fat-free and low-fat muffins, using the name Uncle Wally. The contract with Keebler allows him to use his own name again. And this time, he has someone who knows what they are doing in charge.

Quest for the Perfect Cookie

The chocolate chip cookie has pretty standard ingredients: flour, butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, baking soda, salt and chocolate chips. Tastewise reports that there are 18,359 chocolate chip cookie recipes online. But if you do an online search for chocolate chip cookie recipes, Google will deliver about 91,400,000 results. 

There are a lot of variables that go into baking. So what makes the perfect chocolate chip cookie? According to Jess Smith of Inquiring Chef, “You like what you remember it tasting like. You remember your mom or your grandma or your loved one making it.”

If the chocolate chip cookie is a pretty standard recipe, why are there so many variations? This is because we aren’t content to just have the classic recipe, or a “good enough” recipe. We want the perfect recipe, and everyone wants to put their own spin on it. Sometimes that means varying the techniques. Sometimes it means varying ingredients.

As Dorothy of Crazy for Crust wrote on her chocolate chip cookie recipe page, “Chocolate Chip Cookies: when you find a good one, it’s the unicorn of dessert recipes.”

Sometimes the recipe is just a small tweak of the ingredient amounts. Maybe someone wants a crispier cookie, so they use more granulated sugar and less brown sugar. They might use margarine or shortening instead of butter. They want a less-sweet cookie, so they use less sugar. 

Other times, people want something a little different. They’ll chop up some dark chocolate rather than use chips. In an interview with Buzzfeed, pastry sous chef at Eataly in New York City Kyle Bartone gave tips for making bakery-quality cookies. One of his tips includes using chopped chocolate because he says that chocolate chips frequently have ingredients designed to help them keep their shape, so they don’t melt well. Pastor Bill Radatz told me that he had heard that using chocolate chunks was better, because it gives you more chocolate. Is it truly a chocolate chip cookie if it doesn’t use chocolate chips? It is truer to the original.

Some people want the cookie to be its own entity. Some people just use the cookie as a vehicle for chocolate. Lifehacker offers tips to make your cookies even better, which basically amount to adding mini chocolate chips to your regular chocolate chips to get even more chocolate in every bite. Jess told me that there was actually someone who complained that her recipe had too many chocolate chips. Neither of us thought that was ever possible. After all, there’s a baker’s saying that tells you not to let a recipe dictate how many chocolate chips to put in your cookies—measure them with your heart. In other words, put as much chocolate in as you want!

And there are different techniques. One well-known method now is the pan-banging method. I confess, the very thought makes me nervous. I am very accident-prone, so I have visions of the cookies going flying whenever I adjust the pan. Another method uses two spoons to smoosh the cookies together right after they come out of the oven.

Some recipes call for the cookies to be baked immediately after making the dough. Others suggest chilling the dough (also known as letting it age) anywhere from one hour to three days before baking, if you can wait that long without eating all the raw dough.

And then there’s the Famous Amos technique. When Family Circle published his raisin-filled chocolate chip cookie recipe, there was a note from him at the bottom: “Encourage your cookies as they bake… talk to them and watch them closely.”

Over the years, I have made a lot of cookies. I didn’t make them all from scratch—those premade doughs that Nestlé and Pillsbury sell are far too convenient to resist. After all, who wants to wash the bowls? 

Like many other people, as a child I remember helping my mother who frequently baked cookies. She had one hard and fast rule about baking cookies: “Whatever you do, don’t make cookies like my mom’s.” My grandmother was a wonderful woman, but she didn’t have the knack for making cookies and frequently burned them. (Mom said that they were still good, though, if you soaked them in milk.)

My strongest memories come from my fifth-grade science fair project. The West Point School hosted a science fair every year. It was very competitive, since at least half of the students were the children of officers teaching at the United States Military Academy. Students from grades 5-8 could enter, and then there would be one day when a couple of science professors from the Academy would come review all the projects and judge them. That evening would be an awards ceremony, followed by a chance to view the projects.

When Mrs. Shimek assigned the project, I came up with the idea of researching what fat makes the best chocolate chip cookies. I researched unsaturated fat, saturated fat, polyunsaturated fat and whatever else I could find. I weighed and measured the cookies. I did a taste test, baking up cookies made with four different fats—butter, margarine, oil and shortening. Then I took them to school and did a taste test. At the time, the cookies made with margarine won.

Confession time: first I made all of the cookies for the taste test, but then it snowed. A lot. As in, school was cancelled for several days. We were trapped in the house with something like eight dozen cookies. Of course, we couldn’t let them go to waste! Though my father insists that they did go to waste… or rather, they went to waist, because we ate all of the cookies and then made new ones for the rescheduled taste test.

And at the end of my project, I created a board to display all the work I had done and proudly showed it off to the judges, only to be informed that it wasn’t science. 

I didn’t win any awards at the ceremony, which was disappointing, but mine was the most popular display at the fair. Probably because I handed out cookies, but I’d like to think it was because of how interesting my project was. After all, chocolate chip cookies are something that people can relate to. Who cares about the effect of gamma rays on marigolds?

And Mrs. Shimek loved the project so much, she asked to keep my display board so that she could show it to future classes as an example of what to do. So while the judges may not have appreciated me, I think I won the popular vote and got teacher approval as well.

Emotions of the Cookie

Cookies—and especially chocolate chip cookies—are a favorite childhood memory for many people. They are as much a sentimental favorite as a gustatory treat. Many people have memories of chocolate chip cookies. People made them with their mother. Their grandmother always had them on hand whenever they visited.

Jess of Inquiring Chef said that she remembers baking chocolate chip cookies as a kid, and now her husband requests them every year for his birthday. She doesn’t think that he has memories of his mom baking cookies, but his vision of the perfect cookie is the one that she set as her perfect cookie.

When I asked my survey participants about their best chocolate chip cookie recipes, Kevin and Calvin shared stories of bonding over baking cookies with their sisters and former roommate, respectively.

Lamont said that his mother would sometimes get the premade cookie dough and let him help bake the cookies, then let him watch VHS tapes while eating the cookies. Paul talked about having cookies with hot cocoa when it was cold out—and growing up in Minnesota, he knew cold weather.

Troy shared that his mother, who just died a year ago, used to make cookies for him, so he thinks of her when eating them. Patricia said that her mother usually made oatmeal cookies rather than chocolate chip, but now she makes them herself and invites her boyfriend to share them.

Several people shared that their happy memories involve warm, gooey cookies right out of the oven. Brenda enjoys them best hot out of the oven with some cold milk. Elaine shared her love of eating the dough as she made cookies. Kim said that her mother used to make cookies—not very well—but the smell of them would just permeate the house.

Juan said that his mother made—and still makes—cookies all the time. Unfortunately he is pre-diabetic and has to avoid sugar, so he can’t have any of the cookies that she makes. He has been making sugar-free brownies for himself, but it isn’t the same.

Kathy, a Type-1 diabetic, can’t have cookies either, so even though she enjoys baking, she doesn’t do it much anymore. Rather than try alternate ingredients, like sugar-free chocolate chips, she just doesn’t bake except with her grandkids. “It’s easier, so you’re not tempted!” When asked what she misses most about not having cookies (besides eating them, of course), she said it’s the smell in the house: “You walk in the house, and you know there’s cookies baking.”

Mary claims that her mother, who she insists was the best cook ever, always made the recipe on the bag of Nestlé chocolate chips. Mary also uses only that recipe, and shared plans to bake them with her granddaughter the following day to take to an old friend. Mary’s daughter also uses the recipe on the bag, but she is vegan, so she adapts the ingredients.

Sometimes it’s a single fond memory that is brought back by cookies. Pastor Bekki Lohrmann said that her strongest memory of chocolate chip cookies was when, just after her son was born, her neighbors brought over fresh, gooey chocolate chip cookies. She held her baby with one arm while using the other to munch on the treat. That baby is now four years old and helps bake cookies: “he’s really good too!”

Pastor Bekki is currently pregnant with her second child and due very soon. She told me that she’s not supposed to have any sugar or carbs until the baby comes, but if I have any cookies after she gives birth, she’d be happy to take them off my hands. (Since this was written, she has had her baby. I have not brought her any cookies yet, but I will be baking this weekend!)

Marjorie loved chocolate chip cookies so much that she chose to have them rather than cake at her wedding reception.

And cookies have other side effects. In 1996, Roy Baumeister conducted an experiment that The Atlantic describes as “downright evil.” The experiment that he and colleagues Ellen Bratslavsky, Mark Muraven and Dianne Tice ran was designed to test willpower. The 67 participants in the study were kept in a room smelling of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. Some participants were even allowed to eat the cookies. But those in the experimental group—the ones whose willpower was being tested—were only allowed to eat radishes. Naturally they were not happy about it, apparently sending longing glances to the cookies.

The team then gave participants a puzzle designed to test persistence, supposedly unrelated to the cookies. The group that got to eat the cookies devoted more than twice as much time to the puzzle and made many more attempts. The radish-eaters had apparently expended too much willpower resisting the cookies and could no longer engage in such a draining task.

The results of the study have led to the belief that self-regulation is like a muscle, which needs rest after being exercised. Because the radish-eaters had used so much energy denying themselves the treats that they were tormented with, they didn’t have the ability to focus on the puzzle task. It sounds like eating cookies could be good for your mental health!

Closing

I have made cookies with varieties of chocolate, with chips, chunks and chopped bars. Margarine won the taste test in my science fair experiment, but when I share that story with people, they are usually shocked (and occasionally horrified) by that fact because margarine is not nearly as common nowadays. And in the years since, I discovered Irish butter, which has a higher percent butterfat content. I’ve softened butter, melted butter and browned butter. I have used all-purpose flour, bread flour and cake flour. I have mixed in Cornflakes, marshmallows, potato chips, peanut butter, toffee bits and more. All have been good, but none have been the recipe that will stop my search.

It’s possible this is because there is no perfect recipe. A recipe may be perfect for one person but not another. And as Shelly Jaronsky of Cookies & Cups wrote on her Ritz Carlton Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe page, “once you find the best-best…you get bored.”

How do you like your cookies?