56 Fun Facts About Cookie

Ruth Wakefield developed her Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe at her inn in which US state?

Massachusetts. In World War II the inn mailed its cookies to soldiers, and troops from across the US spread the craze beyond the East Coast.

What was Ruth Wakefield reportedly given for her recipe, besides a promised $1?

A lifetime supply of chocolate, reportedly. In return, Nestlé printed her Toll House recipe on its chocolate packaging nationwide.

What name did Nestlé give the small tear-shaped chocolate pieces it began selling for bakers?

Morsels. Before launching them, Nestlé sold its semi-sweet bars pre-scored into small segments so bakers could break them up for the recipe.

Ruth Wakefield broke a semi-sweet chocolate bar into pieces for her first Toll House cookies using what?

An ice pick. Despite the story that the cookie was a happy accident, Wakefield said she worked the recipe out on purpose.

Oreo was launched in 1912 as an imitation of which earlier cream-filled sandwich cookie?

Hydrox came first, launched in 1908, yet its imitator Oreo went on to overtake it in popularity.

Oreo's 'You can still dunk in the dark' post joked about a blackout during which 2013 event?

The Super Bowl. When a power outage darkened part of the Superdome in the third quarter, Oreo's social media team fired off the joke during the delay.

Which hotel chain welcomes guests with a warm chocolate chip cookie at check-in?

DoubleTree. During the 2020 pandemic lockdowns, it published a home version of its cookie recipe for the first time.

What change to the Oreo filling made it possible for the cookie to become kosher-certified?

Replacing lard with vegetable oil was mainly a health move, but it also cleared the way for kosher certification.

The Mistletoe Troop of Muskogee held the first known Girl Scout cookie sale in which state?

Oklahoma. Five years later, the Girl Scouts' own magazine printed a sugar cookie recipe and suggested troops sell the cookies by the dozen.

With wartime shortages of flour, sugar and butter, what did Girl Scouts start selling as an alternative during WWII?

Calendars. Troops also aided the war effort by collecting fat in cans.

As of 2018, which was the best-selling Girl Scout cookie?

Thin Mints. Each council buys from one of two licensed bakeries, whose recipes differ slightly, so a Thin Mint can taste different depending on where you live.

Which group's campaign got the Barnum's Animals cracker box redrawn in 2018 so the animals roam free?

PETA. It opposes caging animals for circus shows, and the old box showed the animals locked in a circus boxcar.

Fortune cookies most likely descend from cookies made by immigrants from which country?

Japan. Japanese-American bakeries supplied them until World War II, when the forced evacuation of Japanese Americans shut those businesses down.

In 1983, San Francisco's Court of Historical Review rejected which city's claim to the fortune cookie?

Los Angeles. The mock court sided with San Francisco, yet the fortune cookie's true inventor remains uncertain.

In 1992, fortune cookie maker Wonton Food tried selling them in which country, only to find them 'too American'?

China. Fortune cookies were virtually unknown there, and the venture was soon abandoned.

The Newton cookie, in mass production since 1891, was named after a suburb of which city?

Boston. In 2012 Nabisco dropped 'Fig' from the name, partly because the cookie had long come in other fruit flavors.

What did the machine behind the first mass-produced Newton cookies make possible?

Extruding jam and dough together. It made one long filled roll, giving Newtons the bar shape that rival fig bars later copied.

By the 1940s Nabisco was printing a recipe for which Southern dessert on its Vanilla Wafers box?

Banana pudding. Southern cooks were already layering it with vanilla wafers before Nabisco put the recipe on the box.

What was the string on the 1902 Barnum's Animals box meant for?

Hanging it on a Christmas tree. Selling for a nickel, the small carton was a hit when crackers were usually bought in bulk from barrels.

Margaret Rudkin is said to have started which brand by baking wholesome bread for her allergic son?

Pepperidge Farm. She named it after her Connecticut farm, and 1950s trips to Europe later inspired its Milano cookies.

Singers Marvin Gaye and Helen Reddy put up $25,000 to open which cookie brand's first store in 1975?

Famous Amos. Wally Amos was a talent agent who used his homemade cookies to win over show-business clients.

Which cookie chain, founded in Logan, Utah, in 2017, is known for a menu that rotates every week?

Crumbl. Its founders' Mormon upbringing is why the chain doesn't use coffee.

The urban legend of a $250 cookie recipe was set at which department store?

Neiman Marcus. The store answered the rumor by giving its own chocolate chip cookie recipe away free.

What is the first name of the head elf who runs the Keebler Hollow Tree factory?

Ernie. Actor Parley Baer voiced him for almost 30 years, until a stroke in 1997 ended his acting career.

In 2019, Kellogg sold Keebler and its other cookie brands for $1.3 billion to which company?

Ferrero. The deal also brought the Nutella maker the Keebler bakery that makes Girl Scout cookies for many troops.

In Seinfeld's 'The Dinner Party', which bakery cookie does Jerry turn into a lesson about getting along?

Black and white cookie. Barack Obama gave it a similar spin in 2008, calling it a unity cookie while campaigning.

Belgium's Lotus Biscoff cookies became beloved in America as a snack served where?

On airline flights. When United swapped them for another cookie in 2020, the backlash got the airline to promise their return within days.

Why did coconut macaroons become a popular Passover treat?

They contain no flour or leaven. Beaten egg whites give macaroons their lift instead.

Two nuns who sold macarons to support themselves became the 'Macaron Sisters' of which French city?

Nancy. When the French Revolution upended convent life, the two sisters turned to selling macarons, and their shop still makes them.

Where did the Tim Tam get its name?

A Kentucky Derby winner. The horse Tim Tam then won the Preakness too, but finished second in the Belmont and just missed the Triple Crown.

Arnott's set out to 'make a better one' after its food technologist found which British biscuit in 1958?

Penguin. Arnott's answer to it became the Tim Tam.

Early digestive biscuits were thought to aid digestion thanks to which of their raising agents?

Sodium bicarbonate. Then a home remedy for stomach trouble, it gave the biscuits their reputation as an antacid.

Biscotti, the almond biscuits traditionally dipped in Vin Santo, come from which Italian region?

Tuscany. The classic recipe comes from Prato, where baker Antonio Mattei showed his biscuits at the 1867 world's fair in Paris.

Both 'biscuit' and 'biscotti' trace back to Latin roots meaning what?

Twice-cooked. Baking the dough a second time dried it out, so it resisted mold and kept on long journeys.

The American word 'cookie' comes from the Dutch koekje, which means what?

Little cake. Dutch settlers in New Amsterdam, later New York, passed the word on, which is why Americans say cookie where Britons say biscuit.

Cookies appear to have originated in the 7th century AD in which region, soon after sugar became common there?

Persia. Its sweet baking is thought to have reached Europe through the Muslim conquest of Spain.

Web browser cookies were devised by Lou Montulli in 1994 to reliably implement what?

A virtual shopping cart. Websites then had no way to remember individual visitors, so the cookie kept that memory on each user's computer.

What is Cookie Monster's real first name?

Sid. Later, in a push for healthy eating, Sesame Street had the cookie fiend teach viewers that cookies are 'a sometimes food'.

Jim Henson first drew the monster that became Cookie Monster for an ad selling what?

Snack foods. Henson's doodles showed monsters named for the snacks they stole, such as the Wheel Stealer.

Which cookie chain began as a delivery service run by University of Pennsylvania students?

Insomnia Cookies. True to the name, it started out delivering warm cookies to students late at night, and many stores sit near college campuses.

Jaffa Cakes take their name from a popular variety of which fruit?

Orange. McVitie's launched the cakes in 1927, when Jaffa oranges were hugely popular in Britain.

What helped convince a 1991 VAT tribunal that the Jaffa Cake is a cake?

It goes hard when stale, like a cake, while biscuits go soft. Winning kept Jaffa Cakes free of the VAT charged on chocolate-covered biscuits.

Stroopwafels are said to have first been made by bakers in which Dutch city?

Gouda. Many fans rest a stroopwafel on top of a hot coffee or tea for a minute so the syrup filling softens.

Triangular 'petticoat tail' wedges of shortbread are particularly associated with which monarch?

Mary, Queen of Scots is said to have loved them, though evidence of any real link between her and shortbread's origins is sparse.

The Marie biscuit was created by Peek Freans in 1874 to commemorate what?

A royal wedding. Peek Freans named the biscuit after the bride, Russia's Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, who married the Duke of Edinburgh.

Prince William's 2011 groom's cake used about 1,700 of which biscuit, plus 17 kg of chocolate?

Rich tea. William personally asked for the chocolate biscuit cake, a groom's cake custom associated with the American South.

In much of Europe, the Japanese snack Pocky is sold under which name?

Mikado. Its Japanese name, Pocky, is said to echo the sound of eating one of the sticks.

Which sugar gives chocolate chip cookies a moister, chewier texture?

Brown sugar. The molasses in it holds on to moisture, while plain white sugar bakes up crisper.

Cookie Clicker, the 2013 browser game, belongs to which genre?

Idle. Orteil coded the first version in a single evening, then built it into a real game once players flocked to it.

The 'Blue Tin' of butter cookies is a running joke because households reuse it for what?

Sewing supplies. Royal Dansk made the tins sturdy to keep the cookies fresh on long shipping journeys, and it says it is pleased people reuse them.

Which cookie company began as a student's apology for standing up a date?

Tiff's Treats. The apology worked: the two students later married, and in 1999 began delivering warm cookies around Austin.

What name did Ruth Wakefield's 1938 cookbook give her chocolate chip cookie recipe?

Chocolate Crunch. Wakefield handed printed copies of the recipe to inn guests who asked for it before it ever appeared in her book.

Which future first lady's 'stayed home and baked cookies' remark sparked Family Circle's presidential cookie bake-off?

Hillary Clinton said it in 1992 while defending her career, and her chocolate chip cookies then beat Barbara Bush's in the magazine's reader vote.

Which philosopher gave his name to Bahlsen's famous German butter biscuit?

Leibniz: his only link to the biscuit, launched in 1891, is that he was one of the famous residents of Hanover, where Bahlsen was based.

In which city did Girl Scouts sell homemade cookies from a gas and electric company's windows in 1933?

Philadelphia: the troops used the sale to build the girls' marketing and business skills, a model New York City troops soon took up as well.

Which Nabisco cookie, marshmallow on a graham base under dark chocolate, has traditionally vanished from stores every summer?

Mallomars: Nabisco has said the chocolate would melt in summer shipping, though the cookie's return each fall also brings a yearly burst of publicity.