"The Perils of Vintage Cooking"
There, I did it! Caption not wasted. As I mentioned yesterday I made cookies when I got home from work Tuesday night. This recipe comes from the "Nestle's Chocolate Kitchen Recipes" cookbook by Jane Fulton, published in 1951. This 33 page booklet includes recipes for cookies, cakes and breads, desserts, and candies. Also, if you care to know a thing or two about the history of The Toll House cookie or Nestle's Quik, this is the book for you. As a side note I would like to state my displeasure at the bastardization of Nestle's Quik to Nesquik. What's next? Are we going to call Armour Hot Dogs "Armdogs"? Geez!
From the book: "Tucked away in historic Oswego Valley, in the heart of New York State's beautiful dairyland, is Fulton- home of The Nestle Company's chocolate plant- locally known as the "Chocolate Works." How idyllic-sounding. I wonder if it's still there.
Do you know the history of the Toll House cookie? Would you like to? Here it is...
"A cookie is born and a dream comes true"
"Just as the introduction of pressure cookers and frozen food made radical changes in our cooking techniques, so did the creation of a cookie- the Toll House Cookie.
It all started as an ingenious experiment on the part of Ruth Wakefield of the Toll House Inn when she chopped up Nestle's Semi-Sweet Chocolate for use in her favorite cookie recipe. To her surprise, her favorite crispy cookie not only became more delicious in flavor but had, in addition, a delightful surprise element- whole pieces of chocolate that did not melt during baking. Almost overnight Toll House Cookies became a sensational success."
Hmm, that wasn't a very exciting tale. I expected a bit more. Possibly some political intrigue, a smidgen of spy involvement, rabid squirrels, parachuting milkmaids, anything! Oh well.
Latin American Cookies
Sift together and set aside
1 1/2 c. sifted flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ginger
Blend
1/3 c. butter
1/4 c. sugar
Combine
1/3 c. light molasses
1/3 c. double strength coffee (cold)
Add alternately to butter-sugar
mixture, sifted dry in-
gredients and molasses
Add
1 pkg. Nestle's Semi-Sweet
Chocolate Morsels
Drop by teaspoonfuls on greased
cookie sheet.
Bake at 375 degrees Time: 15 min.
Yield: 3 dozen
If desired, frost with powdered
sugar frosting.
It was as i was mixing in the chocolate chips that I realized something was wrong. There were so many chocolate chips you could barely see the batter. Oh no! Just then it occurred to me: perhaps the package sizing was different back in the 1950s! There wasn't anything I could do about it at this juncture, so I just measured out the batter onto the cookie sheets and set the timer.
While the cookies were baking I hopped on the internet and did some investigating. I found several references to a six ounce package. Well, that was it! I had just put double the amount of chocolate chips into the cookies! Oh man! I don't even particularly care for chocolate!
The cookies turned out even with the extra chips. I brought them into work and they disappeared. My friend, Jackie said they were "Awsome!". It's hard to beat awesome, so even if they weren't my favorites this is apparently a fine recipe.
Oh, by the way, I didn't label them "Latin American Cookies" I called them "molasses double chocolate chip cookies". People are too frightened by the unknown where food is concerned.
