Chocolate Chip Cookie History
One of the most loved forms of chocolate is chocolate chip cookie. It never fails to uplift our spirits and give us a sense of comfort.
What most people are not aware of is that, just like many other inventions, these goodies were just made by accident and Ruth Graves Wakefield was responsible for such in the year 1933. Wakefield was the owner of the Toll House Inn, located in Whitman, Massachusetts. It was a well-known eatery that time. Wakefield’s strategy paved way for its popularity, she provided her customers a supplementary serving of food to bring home along with her homemade cookies as dessert.
One day, Wakefield was Butter Drop Do cookies which were allegedly her favorite. She usually made them with bakers’ chocolate, but she ran short of it. So she opted for Nestle semi sweet chocolate that was available in her kitchen. She mixed it into the mixture thinking it would melt and blend well. And to her dismay, they didn’t blend. Instead, the chocolate chips held their shape and softened to a creamy texture, and the rest is chocolate chip history.
Wakefield and Nestle settled with a conformity that would allow Nestle to print the “Toll House Cookie” recipe on its packaging. And what does Wakefield get in exchange? A lifetime supply of chocolates!
During World War II, Nestle Toll House Cookies were being sent to GI’s from Massachusetts and they would be handed out to other American soldiers. Afterwards, some soldiers wrote home asking for Nestle Toll House cookies, which made them in-high-demand.
Nonetheless, the history of chocolate chip cookies varies from one story to another. One of the other stories claims that George Boucher, together with his daughter Carol Cavanagh, worked at the Toll House inn. And they said that some Nestle chocolate bars by the shelf were accidentally dislodged and fell straight into a mixer that had cookie dough, forming little chunks of chocolate in the mix. Boucher claims Wakefield suggested to trash the dough mixture, but he insisted on keeping and baking it.
Despite the controversies in its history, it doesn’t change the fact that we all love chocolate chip cookies. Always have, always will!
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Categories: chocolate articles Tags: Chocolate Chip Cookie, Chocolate History, cookie dough, cookie history
Troubles With Banning Chocolate Milk
Recently, a pilot study done by scientists at Cornell University’s Food and Brand Lab has shown that offering skim milk in lieu of chocolate milk during school lunch diminished the milk sales by 10% and amplified milk waste by 29%. 11 Oregon elementary schools participated in an effort to eliminate unnecessary sugar intake.
The school district’s PTA members were against chocolate milk, believing it’s equally bad as soda. Such a policy may get rid of the added sugar in chocolate milk, but it’s also in some sort asking for trouble, nutritional- and economic-wise. Little kids, more often than not, don’t choose foods for health, but instead for taste.
It has been said that these kids might even stop eating school meals altogether because of this. As a parent, you don’t want that. The students may have had less sugar and fewer calories following the switch, but they also ingested less protein and calcium.
The better option that came about was, instead of eliminating chocolate milk altogether, perhaps to make white milk seem more convenient and much more normal to choose. Simple solutions include putting the white milk in front of the cooler and see to it that at least a third to a half of all the milk is white.
Based on the National Dairy Council, flavored milk adds around 3% of added sugars to children’s diets. Compare that to sodas and fruit drinks, which make up about half of the added sugar and deliver “much less, if any nutritional value.”
When it comes down to it, the decision to ban flavored milk must be treaded lightly.
“Given that the role of the federal school meal program is to provide nutritious meals to students who may otherwise have no access to healthy foods, I wouldn’t recommend banning flavored milk unless you have a comprehensive plan in place to compensate for the lost nutrients when kids stop drinking milk altogether.”
Categories: chocolate articles Tags: Chocolate Milk, chocolate milk ban
Chocolate Bloom Is Not So Bad
Chocolates are normally smooth and glossy. Nevertheless, there is always a chance that you will have chocolates having white blemishes. These blemishes are known as chocolate bloom. It could actually be an indication that the chocolate was not properly stored.
Chocolate bloom is a sandy white film which is usually seen on chocolate’s surface. They may not look pretty at all, but they are usually not harmful. Bloom is the byproduct of the cocoa butter or sugar that has been drawn out to the surface.
There are two types of chocolate bloom: sugar bloom and fat bloom. Since chocolate has fat contents, a whitish gray substance would form on its surface when it gets exposed to warm temperatures for quite some time. The heat tends to pull out the cocoa butter out of the chocolate, and it causes the white pattern on the surface.
Another reason for it is humidity or cold temperatures. If you store chocolates in places with too much humidity or extremely cold ones like the fridge, and then you suddenly expose them to warm temperatures, a sugar bloom could take place. It happens because the surface of the chocolate will condense due to moisture. Sugar crystals tend to remain of the chocolate’s surface after evaporation of moisture, thus leaving a white coating.
Chocolate blooms aren’t really attractive, but it is still okay to eat it given that it is pure, and it does not contain any filling. A small chocolate bloom would not mess with the chocolaty taste, however the texture would not be as smooth.
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Categories: chocolate articles Tags: cocoa butter, cold, usually, white
5 Unexpected Uses of Chocolate Beyond Food – International Chocolate Day
There are many uses for chocolate. It is not just meant for eating as a confectionary. Before it was discovered by the Spanish and brought to Europe and developed into the chocolate we know today, it had many and varied uses, and a lot of people still find ways to squeeze the most benefits out of it!
Categories: chocolate articles Tags: brought, discovered, people, Spanish
Chocolate And Wine
Wine is sensational on its own, I know that all too well. But people nowadays find pleasure in pairing it with different foods as wine is said to intensify the taste. It pairs splendidly with a lot of food, even chocolate! When done correctly, it gives an interesting and flavorful blast in the mouth.
The first thing you need to do is to get your hands on an appropriate type of chocolate. Ordinary chocolate bars you’ll find in your fridge aren’t good enough as they don’t contain distinctive flavors. The best choice are gourmet chocolates, be it dark, milk, or white chocolate.
Regarding your wine of choice, you have to find one that is at least as sweet as the chocolate, perhaps even slightly sweeter. One thing you have to keep in mind when creating this pair is to make sure that the distance between the sweetness of the wine and chocolate shouldn’t be far. Otherwise, the sour notes of wine will make the combination horrible since the wine will make it appear hollow if it isn’t sweet enough.
In general, red wines go along better with chocolate compared to white wines. The acidity of sparkling wines and Champagne reacts with chocolate causing a bitter taste, but that’s not to say they can’t go along well together at all. Correct combination is always key.
Another thing to know about this pairing is that elegant flavored light chocolate taste better with lighter-bodied wines. The stronger the flavor of the chocolate, the more full-bodied wine you need for that perfect combination. Quality of wine is of the essence since bad wine only gets worse when paired with chocolate.
Always taste the wine first. Only then should you start enjoying your chocolate. Doing so paves way for proper assessment of the flavor and taste of the wine itself. Otherwise, your mouth and taste buds will be covered with a thin layer of cocoa butter. Since it is already overwhelmed with chocolate, it can prevent you to taste the wine.
It was once taboo, but pairing wine with chocolate is now becoming commonplace that some people have this particular pair as their comfort food!
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Categories: chocolate articles Tags: CHOCOLATE, cocoa butter, Wine
Brownie Tidbits
We all have a soft spot for brownies. So here are some interesting information about it.
The first brownie was believed to be made in America. Some suggest and claim that it was originally from New England at the beginning of the 20th century.
Despite its being cake-like and being baked in a cake pan, brownies are considered as bar cookies instead of a cake.
Brownies can either be “cake-style” or “fudge-style”. Cake-style is that with the consistency of a cake, but with a thicker consistency. While, fudge-style is more like, yes, fudge than cake. It is the richer, denser, and creamier version of the brownie. The style of brownie is determined by the ratio of flour to chocolate and/or cocoa.
It goes without saying that brownie got its name from its dark brown color. But as expected, the origin of the “brownie” is covered in myth and stories that make all of us wonder which one is the real deal. One of the stories told is that a chef accidentally added melted chocolate to the batch of biscuits he was baking. Another one claims that a cook was baking a cake but had inadequate amounts of flour but baked it anyway, thus, making a brownie.
However, the most famous legend states that a housewife in Bangor, Maine, who was making a chocolate cake, forgot to add baking powder. When the cake didn’t rise, she just cut it and served pieces of the flat cake.
On the other hand, some state that the first known published recipe appeared in the Sears, Roebuck Catalogue in 1897, but that was a recipe for a molasses candy only called brownies. Nowadays, brownies are baked with either cocoa or melted chocolate or a combination of both.
Although the first few brownie recipes were published and modification to the recipe started in the beginning of the 20th century, it wasn’t until the 1920s that brownies became a well-loved treat in the department of baked chocolate goods. It still holds true today.
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Categories: chocolate articles Tags: brownie history, Brownies, cocoa
Health Benefits of Chocolate
Gone are the days when chocolate was synonymous to “unhealthy”. Noawadays, consumption of such in appropriate mounts can actually be beneficial for you, health-wise. Needless to say, you should have the right stuff in hand, not the sugary and not-so-healthy kind.
Contrary to our common thinking, consumption of chocolates can possibly improve cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure and the risk for diabetes. It may sound contradictory but it is true according to Harvard researchers. This study involved a review of 24 studies and 1,106 participants. And the said health benefits are due to the chocolate’s content called flavonoids which are of highest levels in the dark variants.
Dark chocolates were also considered as potent antioxidants by the scientists. These antioxidants attach themselves to free radicals, which are the main cause of cell destruction, and they are flushed away through digestion and other processes. Chocolates are also found out to have what they call ORACS (Oxygen radical Absorbance Capacity Units), and its contents are higher than those of red wine’s and even green tea’s. Consumption of food rich in antioxidants cuts down the risk of having heart attacks, stroke, asthma, and even degenerative cognitive diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Yet another reason to pamper yourself with chocolate! But of course, in moderation.
Chocolate labels nowadays display the percentage of cocoa solids they contain. So, when purchasing, be sure to check it and choose those with at least 70% of cocoa and those that have minimally-processed cacao in them. Antioxidants are not the only nutritional benefit chocolate has to offer, but other stuff as well such as iron, calcium, potassium, and vitamins A, B-1, C, D and E.
Study indicates that a single 5-g square contains approximately 25 calories and 1.5 g. of fat. Thus, an entire row is about 125 calories and 7.5 g of fat.
Instead of devouring one whole bar of chocolate in one sitting, why not try consuming a single row one square at a time? This way, you can rest assured that you are eating moderately.
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Categories: chocolate articles Tags: antioxidants, chocolate benefits, cocoa, contents
