Will the Real Tollhouse Cookie Please Step Forward?

Whitman, Massachusetts is the home of the Toll House and therefore the home of the Tollhouse Cookie. In summer 2023, I was asked to make a batch of chocolate chip cookies to present at a town festival because, at the time, I ran a small business called Whitman Cookie Mama. The Town Administrator, MaryBeth Carter also made a batch of cookies using the original recipe. The news station on site tried both batches and were asked to choose which recipe was the original and which was a new version.

Drop cookies are not an area of expertise for me. My style is...different. Painted artisan cookies are my specialty and while I can make other things, it was a little outside my skillset to make these and then show up for a television appearance. I have long since left my acting days behind! Where this was a historic research task, it was a fun segue into the gastro connection of this project.

I gave up my residential kitchen license this past January (2024) because I could no longer give the time to my small business. The time it takes for each order was something I could no longer offer while balancing career, kids, training, and research work. Baking still happens - just pro bono.