National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day is observed every year on August 4. What’s a better way to celebrate than by eating cookies? (None, of course!) Whether right out of the oven gooey or the grocery store chewy, there’s no denying your love for chocolate chip cookies. So go ahead–take a sweet bite and sip on cold milk this August.
On this holiday, it’s easy to enjoy a chocolate chip cookie and assume it’s a common experience for generations of people. However, did you know chocolate chip cookies are a new recipe? The chocolate chip cookie was created in Whitman, Massachusetts at the Toll House Inn. In 1938, Ruth Graves Wakefield and her assistant baked plain cookies but threw chunks of a chocolate baking bar into it. Instead of mixing with the cookie dough to create a chocolate cookie, it filled up with tasty chunks of chocolate, as chocolate chips never melt because they have less cocoa butter than chocolate bars. Satisfied, Wakefield shared the recipe in a cookbook and served the cookies as an accompanying dessert to ice cream. Since then, it has become a favorite pairing with milk in the years since.
First called the chocolate crunch cookie, chocolate chip cookies today are seen as a staple part of childhood and comfort and is the most popular cookie in America. In fact, it is estimated that a person eats around 35,000 cookies in their lifetime, with half of the cookies baked in American homes being the beloved chocolate chip.
So how can you celebrate National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day? First, you need cookies! Whether you choose a break and bake cookie dough or a secret family recipe passed down for generations (i.e. the recipe from a 1955 box with added chopped walnuts), you can enjoy fresh chocolate chip cookies the way you like them. And if that preferred way is stopping at the store for your favorite premade brand, make sure to grab a fresh bottle of milk while you are at it. There’s even a No-Churn Milk and Cookies Ice Cream recipe that uses crushed chocolate chip cookies, honoring the origins of the famous cookie.
And once you have your chewy or gooey dessert, give your friends some cookies. Whether the size of a quarter like the original chocolate chip cookie or the size of your head straight from the skillet, come together for National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day. Serve up a plate of delicious cookies, paired with ice cream as Wakefield intended or with a glass of milk perfect for a dunk-worthy celebration. However you choose to celebrate, you’ll find comfort in the world’s best snack: cookies and milk.