They are the most American of cookies, created in the 1930s when Ruth Wakefield, owner of the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts, ran out of nuts to put in her butter cookies. She resourcefully chopped up a bar of semisweet chocolate and added it to the dough. The morsels didn't melt and swirl in the dough as she had hoped, but her customers loved them nonetheless and the concept caught on quickly. Nestle's began scoring chocolate bars for easy breaking, and printing her recipe on the package. By 1939, the company was manufacturing semisweet bits sold by the bagful. A few years later they bought the Toll House name.

Nestle's Toll House Morsels are no longer they only chip on the block. Buy a few brands and taste them side by side; you will be able to detect a clear difference between them. Some are unpleasantly waxy, grainy, or just plain bland. While Toll House still stands up quite well in comparison, Guittard makes a lovely chip, as does Tropical Source, which can be found in health food stores.

With the current craze for chocolate chunks rater than chips in the cookie, we've come full circle to Mrs. Wakefield's original version. Semisweet chocolate has a pleasing bitter undertone that is the perfect foil for this buttery sweet cookie. High-quality chocolate bars made by Lindt, Valrhona, and Ghiradelli, to name a few, are available in specialty gourmet food stores and some supermarkets. The 3-4 ounce bars are scored for easy breaking.

It is the opinion of most that chocolate chip cookies call for nuts. Without them, the cookies are flat. You can't go wrong with pecans - the all American nut and one of the sweetest. But there is ample opportunity for divergence. Hazelnuts, macadamias, peanuts, and walnuts are terrific in combination with semisweet, milk, or white chocolate.

Ever wonder why your chocolate chip cookies don't look quite like those in the magazines, with gleaming melty chips and chunks peeking through the golden crust? Take a tip from the pros: those chunks are carefully placed. To make your cookies picture perfect, mix the chips or chunks and nuts into the dough, holding back scant fourth the amount. Once the cookies are dropped onto the baking sheet, stick a few pieces from the reserve on the tops and sides of each ball of dough. It takes a little more time, but the visuals are worth it. It's also a way for the outside of the cookie to tell the story of what's inside.

There's nothing like biting into a crunchy with warm, oozy chunks of chocolate inside. Chocolate chip cookies are so easy to make, there is really no reason to bake them ahead. They are never as good stored or frozen as they are the day they come out of the oven. Chocolate chips and chunks will remain soft and runny for hours, even when the cookies are completely cool.

There are not special skills or fancy equipment required to make chocolate chip cookies. it's a terrific way to introduce small children to baking - you don't even need a electric mixer. A sturdy rubber spatula, a mixing bowl, and a few bars of excellent chocolate will make you a hero or heroine in your kid's classroom or a cherished houseguest on your next weekend visit.

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