Thanks to Ruth Wakefield of Massachusetts, we have Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies. In the 1930's, she and her husband, Kenneth, opened a lodge in a colonial-era toll house which they named, logically enough, Toll House Inn. Ruth’s baking skills made the inn a popular attraction. One day she improvised with a colonial era recipe for cookies, adding bit of chocolate she cut from a Nestlé Semi-Sweet Chocolate bar. The recipe became so popular that in 1939 Nestlé began offering prepared morsels and thus saving the home baker the need to chop up candy bars.

My wife dearly loves chocolate chip cookies. What she does is make a double batch of the chocolate chip cookie dough. She cooks one to eat right now an the other she rolls into cookie-sized rolls and wraps well in waxed paper and plastic wrap and keeps it in the freezer. The next time she wants chocolate chip cookies, all she has to do is set the dough out on the couter for an hour or so, slice and bake. They taste like she just made the dough. Well, its time for some hot, fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies an a tall, cold glass of milk.

• 2 cups (12 ounce package) Nestle Toll House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup chopped nuts
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs

1. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.
2. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in a large mixer bowl.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Gradually beat flour into mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts.
5. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.
6. Bake in a preheated 375°F. oven for 9 to 11 minutes (less time, chewy - more time, crispy) or until golden brown. Let stand for 2 minutes; remove to wire rack to cool completely.
7. Makes about 4 dozen cookies

Pan Cookie variation:

1. Prepare dough as above. Spread onto greased 15-x10-inch jelly roll pan.
2. Bake in preheated 375°F. oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pan on wire rack.
3. Makes about 4 dozen bars.

For High Altitude Baking (5,200 feet): Increase flour to 2 1/2 cups. Add two teaspoons of water with the flour and reduce both granulated sugar and brown sugar to 2/3 cup each. Bake at 375°F. for drop cookies for 8 to 10 minutes and pan cookies for 17 to 19 minutes.