Every year on May 15th, we celebrate a tiny invention with a massive impact: the chocolate chip. National Chocolate Chip Day is all about honoring the little drop that changed dessert forever — and gave us the most iconic cookie of all time.

The Origin

The chocolate chip wasn’t planned — it was a happy accident.

In the 1930s, Ruth Wakefield, owner of the Toll House Inn in Massachusetts, was baking her signature butter cookies when she chopped up a bar of Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate and added the pieces to the dough. She expected them to melt. They didn’t. Instead, she got gooey, melty pockets of chocolate in a soft, chewy cookie. And just like that, the chocolate chip cookie was born.

The recipe became so popular that Nestlé made a deal with Wakefield: in exchange for the rights to print her recipe on their packaging, she’d get a lifetime supply of chocolate. Nestlé later began selling chocolate chips — or “morsels” — specifically for baking.

Happy Chocolate Chip Day!

Source: nestle.com

Maria Cox