World Cookie Day is observed every year on August 4 and we are celebrating it this year by… eating cookies! Biting into a Chocolate Chip Cookie can transport us back to the halcyon days of our childhoods when the days were long and the milk was cold.
We’ve tried Chocolate Chip Cookies warm and gooey right out of the oven or fresh and chewy from the grocery store. But no matter what form your favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie takes, there’s no denying that this triple-C confection holds a very special place in our hearts.
HISTORY OF NATIONAL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DAY
The first Chocolate Chip Cookie was actually made by accident in Whitman, Massachusetts in an inn called the Toll House. In 1938, Ruth Graves Wakefield one day planned on making regular chocolate cookies but got the great idea of throwing in chunks of a chocolate bar into it. Much to her surprise, the chocolate did not mix well with the cookie and instead, it filled up with tasty chunks of chocolate.
These fortunate turn of events led to the emergence of the Chocolate Chip Cookie and the birth of the Toll House company. As time went on, different versions of the cookie were made using white chocolate or dark chocolate and the people wanted a variety of new recipes to enjoy!
Ruth Graves Chocolate Chip Cookie started to get more and more famous. Finally, Nestle reached out to her and agreed to add her recipe to their wrapper in exchange for a lifetime of free cookies — and she took it!
Chocolate Chip Cookies have come a long way since the Toll House Inn days because today it is seen as a staple part of the American home. It is estimated that a person eats around 35,000 cookies in a lifetime which is crazy if you think about it. It is now available to be eaten in places like Europe and Australia, and it will only get bigger from here on out. You never know, it might just get so famous that aliens might just come to Earth — over the smell of some delicious cookies.
NATIONAL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DAY BY THE NUMBERS
38,000 – the weight of the world’s largest chocolate chip cookie.
102 feet – the diameter of the world’s largest chocolate chip cookie.
30,000 – the number of eggs used in the world’s largest chocolate chip cookie.
53% – the percentage of Americans who prefer chocolate chip cookies to other cookies.
13.5% – the percentage of American adults who admitted to having eaten at least 20 chocolate chip cookies in one sitting.
10% – the percentage increase in consumption of chocolate chip cookies after the introduction of detailed Nutrition Facts labels.
50 – the number of chocolate chips that can be held in a normal tablespoon of cookie dough.
1970s – the period in which John Kerry opened a cookie store out of boredom.
104–113℉ – the ideal temperature for chocolate chips to melt when baking cookies.
35,000 – the number of cookies the average person consumes in a lifetime.
5 FACTS ABOUT COOKIES THAT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND
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Dub thee
It Was First Called The Chocolate Crunch Cookie
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Chunks of chocolate
Chocolate chips never melt because they have less cocoa butter than chocolate bars.
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Cool kid
The Chocolate Chip Cookie is America’s most popular cookie.
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Cookie currency
The first chocolate chip cookie was the size of a quarter.
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Lots o’ chocolate
There are 7 billion Chocolate Chip Cookies eaten in the United States every year, with about 50% of those homemade cookies.