Food
Ruth Wakefield’s Original Toll House Cookies Recipe
The original Toll House Cookies, invented by Ruth Wakefield at the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts, date back to the 1930s.
By Yankee Magazine|May 20 2022|
Coffee By Design | Portland, Maine
Photo Credit : Katherine Keenan
I have never heard of or read a recipie that required dissolving baking soda in hot water when using in a recipie. I wonder what is the difference between using it dry and dissolving it.
Perhaps it just helps it get evenly distributed? I was curious about that, too.
The only change I would make: Don’t use butter to grease the baking sheet. Use parchment paper.
When this recipe appeared in Yankee magazine some years ago, it included a half teaspoon of water. What was the purpose of this, I wonder.
The original recipe did not use butter. It was Crisco.
Hi Arlene. Perhaps! The earliest record we could find is in Ruth’s 1945 cookbook, where she calls for butter. You can see it here: http://newengland.com/today/food/toll-house-cookies/
Thank you for finding and printing this recipe. My parents were from Maine and Mass with my Grand father being a pastry chef immigrating from France. The Toll House recipe is similar to the one I was given by my mother for me to share with my sons and grandsons.(not with granddaughters though). She said it was to be kept a secret handed down to all sons that would be a special way to connect them to her for generations to come. So far the “secret recipe” has been passed to three generations and believe it or not, there seems to be a “special feeling” at that moment it is shared for the first time with a new grand son. Maybe it is just in our hearts but something is there. Cold milk, Toll House Cookies and love from Grandma. It really doesn’t get better than this! ! !
I always thought the water made thinner cookies. I love thin chip cookies
I have my mother’s signed cookbook by Ruth ( a wedding present). 1937… recipe for cookies not in this first cookbook!
How can I make my cookies “Crunchy”? Mine come out soft and growing up my Mom always made them with walnuts but they came out crunchy. What am I doing wrong? Help!
Add Crisco, don’t use all butter.
the original recipe did have crisco, some news station had a special on the original recipe
My mother always used Crisco. I have used butter & they spread too much.
I’ve used half butter and half Crisco. Most times they don’t spread out too far because my family likes a nice, soft cookie. I’ll have to try all Crisco, too.
I don’t recall if the original recipe called for butter or shortening, but it did call for the baking soda to be dissolved in a small amount of hot water.
I enjoyed reading the article about Toll House Cookies. I grew up in Whitman and Ruth and Ken Wakefield were my parents best friends and had spent many delicious times at The Toll House, the last being my wedding dinner party in 1958. I have an original , 1936, signed copy of Ruth’s cookbook that even today I often refer to. Her recipes are still the best.
When I first began making these on my own back in the mid-1960s the Nestle chips package called for not only baking soda but baking powder, and yes, a teaspoon of water. I follow the package directions now even though they’ve changed. I’m wondering if I should go back to the old way, just to see. My family still demands them though at Christmas, even though kids are grown and grandchildren are almost grown. Even my brothers love them.
For a traditional cookie use Crisco
Was Crisco in use in the 1930s?
Yes, Crisco has been around since 1911
When I first started making choc. chip cookies, the recipe called for part butter and part Crisco. I kept the recipe, which was on the back of the Tollhouse Morsel package for years. I have never had a better cookie. Now I have lost that recipe. If anyone here knows what the exact measurements are, please let me know.
You are exactly right. Its how I learned to make them in the 70’s. Half Butter and Half Crisco.
As this is an old recipe creaming butter was done by hand (wooden spoon) not an electric mixer. If you beat the shortening especially butter with a power mixer you’re introducing more air into the batter making it more liquid hence runnier cookies.
Chilling the dough should keep the cookies from spreading too much.
My Grandmother’s Spice Cookie recipe calls for the baking soda to be dissolved in a bit of hot water. I always do it and they turn out fabulous! I think it may sort of activate the soda…
I came across this recipe last week and my family and extended family believe these cookies are best.I’ve made them twice in less than a week.Delicious.Thank you.
I lived in Duxbury Mass and my mother taught Ruth Wakefield how to braid rugs
Ruth use to take care of me weekly while my mother taught Home Economics
I had all the original toll house cookies I wanted
Ruth gave my mother a hand written toll house cookie recipe that My mother gave me and still have Tom G
Love your story, Tom. It made a special moment for me reading it.
That’s ab amazing story!!
Is the original toll house recipe from Ruth the same as the toll house recipe now? I’ve heard it’s slightly different!
Tom…my Mom and grandmother made a cookie, I think recipe from Toll House cookbook. It was some kind of tea cookie(?)…they’d make the batter, roll into a log and freeze it. Then you would take it out, slice thin and bake. They had finely chopped walnuts in them…they were delicious! Any ideas? My Mom had an original Toll House cookbook signed by Ruth Wakefield but I don’t know what ever happened to it????. Thank you
Pam, I think you are referring to Nut Tea Wafers. At least that’s what my mother called them. She made them every Thanksgiving and Christmas and I have been doing the same all of my married life (53 years). Don’t know where she got the recipe but it’s one of my favorites and a hit with my family and friends too!
I found the Nut Tea Wafers recipe searching for a copy of the Tollhouse Inn cookbook. Here is the recipe as written in the cookbook: “Cream together: 1/2 cup of butter, 1 cup brown sugar. Add 1 egg beaten. Beat mixture well. Sift together 1.25 cups flour, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp soda. Add to first mixture with 1/2 cup nut meats chopped, 1/2 tsp. vanilla. Mix well and pack in greased bread tin lined with wax paper. Chill overnight. Turn out onto board and slice as thinly as possible with a carving knife. Bake at between 375-400 degrees F for 7-12 minutes. * Dough may be formed into a long roll before chilling if a round cooky is preferred*”
Hi Tom, if you find this msg, I would love an perfect photo of the hand written toll house cookie recipe for a history book on cookies. gkenny3@yahoo.com
Hi Tom – would you mind sending me a copy of your original hand-written recipe – picture or scan, or I can give you a mailing address. Thank you. Ken (kbjunk2-at-yahoo-dot-com)
The hot water activates the baking soda. Baking soda helps to make the cookies rise. Think of how baking soda in water fizzes up and you’ll see how it could help.
There are quite a few old recipes for cakes and cookies that call for the soda to be dissolved in a small amount of water. It helps the soda to be dispersed better throughout the recipe. From what I’ve read, early forms of leavening, including soda, were chunkier, some that even had to be shaved from a block or pounded into a powder. No one wanted to bite into the little flecks of soda that hadn’t dissolved in the finished product. Dissolving it first in a little water took care of the problem. Also, I believe early versions of the recipe called for the original 6 ounce bag of morsels with the other ingredients scaled accordingly. The 12 ounce bag that is so common today didn’t come along until later.
I have made this recipe for over 50 years. I always use Crisco. I also add a little water. The cookies have always been a favorite in our family.
My mom always used Crisco too.
Memories !!! Mom and I would travel to a fabric store in Whitman then eat at the Toll House.
Saftlers Fabric! Miss that place.
I remember my mom driving past the Toll House on our way to Saftler’s fabric too- I can’t believe I remember that!
Very interesting comments. I will certainly try with Crisco. It is usually in my cupboard as I use it to make pie crust. Thanks for the recipe.
I had the original recipe that called for baking soda dissolved in water and baking powder. It also called for chocolate broken from a whole bar. Lost the recipe. It was the best.
I’m in my 70s and I remember making Toll House cookies from the recipe on the bag of chips and using half butter and half shortening (what exactly does it “shorten”?) I find when I use all butter the dough is too soft and the cookies flatten out too much. If you want a crisper cookie, bake it a minute or 2 longer.
My mom always used Crisco too.
I saw the Crisco vs. butter comments si I decided to use 1 stick butter and a 1/2 cup Crisco. The results were ok; not disappointing just that I missed the ‘buttery’ taste.
The texture was crispy rather than soft and chewy. All in all pretty good. I’ll use all butter next time.
I grew up making these (60’s and 70’s) with shortening and I’m sure that was what the recipe called for. I’ve tried it with butter and they’re too greasy and flat. Now that they make butter flavored shortening it’s the best of both worlds!
Lynette I agree I have been using this recipe for years, I use 1/2 butter, 1/2 butter crisco.
Yes, Crisco has been around since 1911
My cookies don’t come out cakey, which I absolutely hate anyway, and they don’t spread thin either, and I use only real butter. I don’t buy Crisco anymore. Haven’t for a very long time. And all of my cookies are perfect. I’d share a picture, but I don’t see that option available.
Try half lard (the freshly rendered it from butcher or farmer.) and half butter. Very crisp cookie. But I remember Nestle package direction called for 1 tsp water. I substituted coffee. This was for the small batch of cookies using 1 stick of butter
I would definitely chill the dough, as that will keep the cookies from spreading too much. Also, I saw a documentary on this and was told she originally used broken up pieces of chocolate, so I am guessing this is not exactly the “original” recipe, but perhaps an early Toll House Chocolate Chips product recipe.
I grew up in Whitman and my first part-time job was working in the kitchen at the Toll House making salads and desserts. It was a wonderful place to work and a lovely restaurant as well! Everyone loves Toll House cookies, including my grandchildren!
I don’t want to be a naysayer, but I made Ruthie’s recipe from her original book just a couple of weeks ago and the one printed here is not the same. I’m not at home right now so I can’t look it up, but I will when I have a chance. I remember it called for the baking soda to be dissolved in hot water and it used chocolate chunks broken from a bar, not chips which probably weren’t available in the 1930s. I know the book is authentic because my parents used to drive from Providence to the restaurant for dinner a few times a year and they said they actually bought the book from Ruthie. Oddly, the recipe in the book makes 100 cookies. They must have been bite-sized because I used the amount of dough per cookie I am used to and I only got about 50 cookies. Regardless of the recipe version, still one of the top three cookie recipes I’ve ever found in nearly 70 years of life and 60 years of cooking and baking. The only cookie that might top it was another old New England chocolate cookie recipe that made a very flat, very chocolate cookie that had a snap to it. Unfortunately, I’ve lost the recipe and can’t recreate it. I’ve checked all my old New England cookbooks, but I can’t find it.
I envy you that recipe book! I had a look at it decades ago, it belonged to a neighbor when I lived in Wickford, RI. If I remember correctly, the recipe called for chilling- and I wouldn’t skip that step- it gives the dough time to develop flavor and texture. I make shortbread cookies and the original recipe calls for chilling- I do that overnight and it makes a huge difference.!
I have Ruth Wakefild’s Tried and True Recipe Book, in it, she calls for Butter and yes she calls for the soda to be dissolved in 1 tsp of hot water. We love these cookies.
I don’t know if I’ll see an answer to my question (or how to find it), but I hardly do any baking but I’m wondering how you only use a tablespoon full of batter and get those nice big cookies?!!!
Thanks, Linda
Her choc. chip cookies were made because she wanter her customers to have a choice/change from the thin lemon cookie she served with ice cream & other desserts.
Use a big heaping tablespoon. Or an ice cream scoop for even bigger cookies.
ANY CHANGES FOR HIGH ALTITUDE BAKING?
After much experimentation I have found what works for me. I double the recipe, using 1 3/4 cups butter and 1/4 cup butter flavor Crisco. I add 1/2 tsp baking powder. I hand mix. I chill dough. Using a cookie scoop and parchment paper the cookies do not spread too much. This is the way we like them.
Well if you want to take it up a notch try melting 1/8 C. of Butterscotch chips with the butter and you will get a lovely flavor with a shiny top. Enjoy!
I have the recipe as published in Better Homes & Gardens Magazine in October 1937 or 38 (I still have the original page from the magazine, a little dog eared). That recipe calls for 2 cups of oatmeal, which is what keeps the dough from melting all over the cookie sheet. This is the only recipe my family has used for 80 years, and they are the best ones I have ever had. The recipe also calls for eggs to be unbeaten. With a heavy duty stand mixer, it is no problem adding all ingredients.
Hi Gretchen – would you mind sending me a copy of your original 1937 recipe – picture or scan, or I can give you a mailing address. Thank you. Ken (kbjunk2-at-yahoo-dot-com)
Anyway you could send me a copy of the magazine recipe. I would appreciate it very much
I forgot to give you my email
Trd1976@aol.com
I just looked on Amazon. The cookbook is available for $179.
The recipe my mother has passed down from my childhood she insists was on the back of the first Nestle’s bag had you melt the butter and Crisco and brown sugar together. Added after cooled alternately with the dry ingredients that were shifted together to the eggs in the bowl. This always gave us a crunchy cookie. I know they changed the recipe several times on the bag.
Hi Kathi,
In Ruth Wakefield’s Toll House Tried and True Recipes cookery book published in 1945, the way the recipe is written in this blog is exactly as it is printed in the book from 1945. It’s unfortunate that the recipes on the back of the bags always seems to change! It would be great if there was a database of the ‘back of the box’ recipes and how they’ve changed over the years!
Made this recipe today as noted with all butter at room temperature and pretty soft. Also let eggs get room temp. I chilled the dough before baking, used a cookie scoop, and parchment paper. They turned out perfectly.
When I make these cookies, I use Milk Chocolate Chips, because I prefer Milk Chocolate. They’re always a hit, according to my family. Even my husband, who isn’t a “sweets person” enjoys them!
Perfect cookies. Crispy edges, somewhat chewy middle. So many compliments. This is now my go to CCCR. I used butter and dissolved the baking soda.
One of the older recipes on the back of the Nestle’s chips noted “if omitting the nuts, add 1`-2 Tbl additional flour”. Is this a good idea?
I am a baker and seem to be having an issue. They are completely spread out and won’t come off the cookie sheet. I saw online to add more flour but wanted to make sure or if you had any thoughts?
Hi Heather! Did you melt the butter, by any chance? The butter should be room temperature for this recipe.
I have that cookbook and it calls for 14 oz of chocolate, chopped (not 12 oz chocolate chips). Downsizing of the Nestle chips bags did not help the cookies get better