“There’s nothing more American than Apple Pie.” Wrong! Apple pie, though it has become synonymous with American traditional food, is not actually American at all. It came from across the pond. Some say England, others say Germany, but definitely not here. But this post isn’t about pie, apple or otherwise.

As usual, it’s about cookies. Delicious chocolaty cookies. The very cookies that are, in fact, more American than apple pie. What cookies are those?

Chocolate Chip cookies, of course. These cookies originated in Whitman, Massachusetts, but even more than the location of origin, the manner in which they were created smacks of the Yankee ingenuity for which we’re famous.

It seems that one day, Ruthe Graves Wakefield, owner of the Toll House Inn, was in the midst of making chocolate cookies when she realized she was out of baking chocolate.  Quick thinking and a search of her larder yielded the idea of using semi sweet chocolate pieces from Nestle assuming that they’d melt into the batter and make it chocolaty during baking.

As we all know, the result was not necessarily the in intended chocolate diffusion, but what a happy accident!

During WWII, local GIs received welcome care packages from their loved ones and shared the chocolate chip cookies with their brothers in arms from other parts of the country. Before long, demand for the cookies was spread throughout the country.

Eventually, Ruth Wakefield sold the recipe for the cookie to Nestle in exchange for a lifetime of free chocolate chips.  To this day, every package of chocolate chips contains a variation of the original recipe on its packaging.

Nestle’s Toll House recipe is still the most widely known way to make chocolate chip cookies, but there are many, many derivations of this tasty treat. Many people add macadamia nuts and use white chocolate chips. Some people substitute M&Ms or add pecans. Personally, I am partial to adding a third cup more chocolate chips than the recipe asks for.

What’s your favorite way to make chocolate chip cookies?

Drum roll please! Introducing the Stars’ Smile Smiley Cookie Competition (now that is a mouthful).

It couldn’t be easier to play our Stars’ Smile Smiley Cookie Competition. Here’s how:
Every Thursday at 12 PM EST, we will tweet a link to a picture of a famous smile. We’ll take the first 5 correct Tweets of the famous smile @smileycookie (http://www.twitter.com/smileycookie) in the order in which they appear and, using randomizer.org, we’ll pick one lucky winner. The lucky winner will receive a dozen amazing Smiley Cookies delivered right to your home! (or work. or whatever delivery address you give us when we contact you.)

Remember you have to follow us on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/smileycookie) to play.

Each person is eligible to win one “Stars’ Smile Competition” every 30 days. Participants are allowed to only tweet the winner once. Winners’ @replies will be counted according to the order that they appear on Smiley Cookies’ Twitter screen

We’ll take the first 5 correct Tweets in the order in which they appear and, using randomizer.org, we’ll pick one lucky winner.

So what do you get? Just a dozen amazing Smiley Cookies delivered right to your home! (or work. or whatever delivery address you give us when we contact you.)

Good luck and happy tweeting!

Make your own Cookie Gifts

All Purpose Cookie Dough

When it comes to making homemade gifts that come from the heart, all purpose cookie dough is a great ingredient to use in order to cut down on the amount of prep time that you need to set aside for your crafts.

If you’re too busy to make your own, all purpose cookie dough can be picked up in any grocery store for a very affordable price and tastes almost as good as cookie dough that has been made from scratch. But you know – nothing beats homemade, and this dough takes about 5 minutes to make so what the heck right?

Cookie Gift Ideas

With a little bit of imagination and brainstorming, you will find that there are a limitless number of different cookie gifts that you can come up with that are suitable for just about every occasion. In order to get you started, let’s take a look at a few of the more innovative cookie gift ideas that imaginative bakers have come up with in recent years.

Of course, some of the most popular cookie gift ideas are designed to be prepared as gifts for Valentine’s Day. With a little bit of pink frosting and tiny red hearts, you can easily make a big batch of Valentine’s cookies for everyone in your office or to bring to a holiday party. (Or, you can cheat and create your own heart cookie here. We wont’ tell.)

Some of the more imaginative cookie gift ideas that can be made out of cookie dough are regular cookies that have been dipped in luxurious chocolate. Some romantic bakers like to make heart shaped cookies that have been dusted in sugar to resemble those famous conversation heart candies that have been given out as gifts for generations with messages like “Be Mine” and “Let’s Kiss.”

Another popular occasion for making interesting cookie gifts is high school and college graduation. While there are a number of different types of cookie gifts that you can make to give your friends and family members when they graduate from school, one of the best designs that people make consists of a yellow smiley face that is wearing a black graduation hat.

In order to decorate this type cookie, you can easily use a hard shelled sugar frosting, but you can make a really tasty gift by using lemon flavored frosting for the yellow face and dark chocolate for the graduation cap and facial features.

However, the all round classic cookies to make for friends and family out of all purpose cookie dough are made to celebrate the Christmas season. You can use ingredients like M&M’s, mint green icing and cherry flavored speckles to decorate cookies in the shape of Christmas trees, Santa and snowmen.

All Purpose Cookie Dough

Regardless of how you decide to decorate or create your cookie, here’s a recipe that is quick (five minutes prep) and super easy: The magical, amazing, All Purpose Cookie Dough!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Technique:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).

That’s it. That’s really it. Including clean-up time, that dough shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes to make. And it’s like a black, roll-out-able canvas for your imagination. So go crazy and decorate! By the time you’re done, you’ll have the best home made cookie gifts ever!