Looking for a sweet summer activity for the kids? Check into an inn in Whitman MA.
It was here that one of the most fun activities of childhood got its start. Ms. Ruth Graves Wakefield ran the inn with her husband beginning in 1930. Located on Route 18 between Boston and New Bedford, the inn became a popular lunch and dinner spot for travelers. Ruth offered a completely home-cooked menu, and quickly developed such a reputation that, starting in 1940, she published a cookbook that went through 39 printings.
Her most famous recipe was actually a mistake. Folks loved her delicious “butter drop dough” cookies, and Ruth wanted to offer an alternative for chocolate fans. Having run out of powdered chocolate, she took a bar of semi-sweet chocolate, broke it into little pieces and folded the chocolate bits into the mixture. Unfortunately, when she baked the cookies, the pieces did not spread as she expected, but remained as little globs of molten chocolate. But fortunately, folks seemed to like them just fine. In fact the cookies were the most delicious things they’d ever tasted.
Word of these new “chocolate chip” cookies quickly spread. Soon after, Ruth got a visit from Mr. Andrew Nestle, who had learned that the original recipe had been made from a bar of Nestle chocolate. Ruth and Andrew struck a deal: Nestle would fabricate new semi-sweet chocolate morsels for the making of the cookies, and provide Ruth a lifetime supply for her use at the inn. In return, Nestle would get to print Ruth’s recipe on the side of their packaging.
All that was needed was a name. And so the world’s first chocolate chip cookie was christened “Toll House” for its origins at Ruth Wakefield’s Toll House Inn.
As for the Inn itself, it did not survive. It burned down on New Year’s Eve, 1984, and has since been replaced by a Wendy’s and a Walgreen’s.
But culinary greatness is forever. Which means if it rains this weekend and your kids are climbing the walls, just grab a package of Nestle chocolate chips and head to the Toll House. Sweet!
