GKT102: General Knowledge for Teachers – Reading

In this final section we looked at how authors may write about the same topic, but in different ways. Specifically, we looked at how authors 'converse with one another. The two excerpts below both discuss the history of chocolate chip cookies. The articles intersect at some points, and diverge at others. Read both excerpts, then drag the details that are the same or different into the corresponding boxes to synthesize the texts. Refer back to the resources in this section if you are unsure of any of your answers.

Article Excerpt 1:

The traditional recipe starts with a dough composed of butter and both brown and white sugar, semi-sweet chocolate chips and vanilla. Variations on the recipe may add other types of chocolate, as well as additional ingredients such as nuts or oatmeal. There are also vegan versions with the necessary ingredient substitutions, such as vegan chocolate chips, vegan margarine, egg substitute, and so forth. A chocolate chocolate chip cookie uses a dough flavored with chocolate or cocoa powder, before chocolate chips are mixed in. These variations of the recipe are often referred to as 'double' or triple' chocolate chip cookies, depending on the combination of dough and chocolate types.

The chocolate chip cookie was invented by American chefs Ruth Graves Wakefield and Sue Brides in 1938. She invented the recipe during the period when she owned the Toll House Inn, in Whitman, Massachusetts. In this era, the Toll House Inn was a popular restaurant that featured home cooking. It is often incorrectly reported that she accidentally developed the cookie, and that she expected the chocolate chunks would melt, making chocolate cookies. In fact, she stated that she deliberately invented the cookie. She said, 'We had been serving a thin butterscotch nut cookie with ice cream. Everybody seemed to love it, but I was trying to give them something different. So I came up with Toll House cookie." She added chopped up bits from a Nestle semi-sweet chocolate bar into a cookie. The original recipe in Toll House Tried and True Recipes is called "Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookies".

Wakefield's cookbook, Toll House Tried and True Recipes, was first published in 1936 by M Barrows & Company, New York. The 1938 edition of the cookbook was the first to include the recipe 'Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookie" which rapidly became a favorite cookie in American homes.

During WWII, soldiers from Massachusetts who were stationed overseas shared the cookies they received in care packages from back home with soldiers from other parts of the United States. Soon, hundreds of soldiers were writing home asking their families to send them some Toll House cookies, and Wakefield was soon inundated with letters from around the world requesting her recipe. Thus began the nationwide craze for the chocolate chip cookie. The recipe for chocolate chip cookies was brought to the UK in 1956, with Maryland Cookies one of the UK's best selling chocolate chip cookies.

Article Excerpt 2:

While Chocolate cookies feel timeless their invention is actually relatively recent. The Chocolate Chip cookie was invented by accident in 1930 when Ruth Graves Wakefield, co-owner of the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts, was preparing a batch of Chocolate Butter Drop Do cookies for the inn guests. Md preparation she realized she was out of the required baker's chocolate. Looking for a last-minute substitute, she reached for a bar of Nestle semi-sweet chocolate that had been given to her by Andrew Nest46 and chopped it up. While the original colonial recipe for Chocolate Butter Drop Do cookies involves bakers chocolate that melts and mixes throughout the dough, the Nestle semi-sweet chocolate did no such thing. The Nestle chocolate softened to a gooey consistency while maintaining its form resulting in what we now know as the Chocolate Chip cookie.

Ruth named her new creation the "Chocolate Crunch Cookie° and published the recipe in local newspapers. Eventually, Ruth's cookies were picked up for an episode of the Betty Crocker Cooking School of the hr radio program and the Chocolate Chip cookie became widely popular. Demand for Nestle semi-sweet chocolate skyrocketed boosting their sales and prompting them to strike a deal with Ruth. k exchange for a lifetime supply of free chocolate, Nestle printed Ruth's recipe, called 'Mrs. Wakefield's Toll House Cookies,' on their chocolate labels. Nestle further capitalized by beginning to score their chocolate bars and including a special chocolate chopper so people could easily make the chocolate chips for their cookies. In 1939, Nestle introduced pre-chopped chocolates called "Nestle's Toll House Chocolate Morsels' which are still sold today.

Exercise:

After reading both excerpts, determine whether the following statements intersect or diverge between the two articles. Refer back to the resources in this section if you are unsure of any of your answers

From Article 1

1. The chocolate chip cookie was invented by American chefs Ruth Graves Wakefield and Sue Brides in 1938.
2. Wakefield's cookbook, Toll House Tried and True Recipes, was first published in 1936 by M. Barrows & Company, New York.
3. She added chopped up bits from a Nestle semi sweet chocolate bar into a cookie.

From Article 2

4. Looking for a last-minute substitute, she reached for a bar of Nestle semi-sweet chocolate that had been given to her by Andrew Nestle and chopped it up.
5. Ruth named her new creation the "Chocolate Crunch Cookie" and published the recipe in local newspapers.

Source: Saylor Academy
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