Sweets, Lies & Classic Desserts

Recently, we found ourselves enveloped in the soft, warm, sticky middle of…a delicious homemade chocolate chip cookie. Reveling in its understated sweetness, the thought crossed our mind of where this actually came from. Meaning not what store did we buy it from, but where did the chocolate chip cookie – the original chocolate chip cookie – come from? Who was the Adam or Eve that gave birth to that first gooey marvel?

In today’s blog post we are delving into the murky world of the origins of some famous sweets and desserts. Because we figured that, just like most politicians, behind every great dessert there likely lies a trail of deceit, manipulation, and even stolen credit. So fair warning: if you’re expecting heartwarming stories of culinary genius in the kitchen, some parts of today’s story may leave a bittersweet taste in your mouth. But we hope you’ll join us as we sift through the crumbs of history to uncover the dark truths that lurk behind some of our most favorite, sweet delicacies.

It turns out that it was an “Eve”, by the name of Ruth Wakefield, that’s credited with creating the Chocolate Chip Cookie.

Wakefield was the owner of the Toll House Inn, a popular restaurant in Whitman, Massachusetts and, according to the story, in 1938 she was making her famous Butter Drop Do cookies when she realized she was out of baker’s chocolate. In a moment of inspired desperation, she substituted broken pieces of semi-sweet Nestle chocolate into the cookie dough. Instead of melting, as she’d hoped, the chocolate retained its shape, and the first-ever batch of chocolate chip cookies was brought, hot and piping, into the world.

An instant hit at the Toll House Inn, the cookies gained a reputation far beyond the local area and were even featured on Betty Crocker’s radio program.

Pretty soon, Nestle, the company that manufactured the chocolate used in the cookies took notice and on March 20th, 1939, in a bargain that rivals Peter Minuit’s purchase of Manhattan, Wakefield agreed to let Nestle print her recipe on their chocolate packaging – for $1 USD! Sales of Nestle’s semi-sweet chocolate skyrocketed, and the chocolate chip cookie soon became a staple in American households.

Baked Alaska is a classic dessert that consists of ice cream inside a layer of cake covered in meringue, which is then quickly baked in a hot oven to create a browned, toasted exterior while keeping the ice cream inside frozen. Most often it’s served flambe with flaming rum poured over it at the table.

There are a few different stories surrounding the origin of this amazing dessert, but the most popular is that it was created at the famous Delmonico’s Restaurant in New York City in the late 1800’s by a French chef by the name of Charles Ranhofer. He supposedly created it to commemorate the United States’ acquisition of Alaska from Russia in 1867. The dessert was said to resemble a snow-covered mountain, symbolizing the icy Alaskan landscape. Ironically there was supposedly an extreme heatwave hitting New York at the time, and the kitchen staff was well and royally pissed off about Ranhofer’s decision to turn up the oven heat on high to bake ice cream. Lucky for us he did!

Custard has been around for, seemingly ever, and its exact origins are not attributed to a single individual.

It was, we’re told, the ancient Romans who first discovered that eggs could bind with other ingredients and the basic concept of custard is combining milk or cream with eggs and sweetening agents. However, it’s generally accepted that it was during the Middle Ages that the sweet, creamy-textured custard we know today was created. A notable figure associated with popularizing and refining custard was Francois Massialot, a French chef and author who, in the late 17th century, published an influential cookbook that featured numerous recipes for custard and other desserts.

What’s the first thing you think of when it starts to snow? Skiing? Snowball fights? Sledding? Mixing it with some fruit juice and eating it? No? Well lemme tell ya, as far back as 3000 B.C., ancient civilizations began flavoring crushed ice, or Sorbet as we know it today.

Alexander the Great enjoyed eating snow with honey, and the Roman Emperor Nero had runners who would fetch snow to mix with fruits and juices so that he could enjoy the frozen treat. Introduced to Europe through the Arab conquests and the trade routes of the Middle Ages, Sorbet became particularly popular in Italy, where it evolved into the gelato we know today. Its name comes from the Italian word “sorbetto”, which is derived from the Arabic word “sharbat”. “Sharbat” refers to a sweet beverage made from fruit juices mixed with water and sugar.

Pavlova is a dessert named for a famous Russian ballerina, Anna Pavlova, after a tour she made to Australia and New Zealand.

The title of the inventor of this meringue based cake with a crisp crust and soft, marshmallow-like inside is still being fought over by Australia and New Zealand. The Australians claim to have created it at a Perth hotel in 1926. When a guest commented that it was “as light as Pavlova”, the chef decided to name it after the famous ballerina. However, this Pavlova was actually a layered gelatin dessert. In 1929 a New Zealand chef created a meringue dessert with cream and kiwi fruit that was, supposedly inspired by Pavlova’s tutu, which led to New Zealand’s claim of ownership.

New York. Berry. Chocolate. Red Velvet. Baked. Refrigerated…..The list of Cheesecakes today is never ending.

Originally made of wheat, flour, honey, and cheese and then baked, today’s recipes are a bit more complicated than those since its invention in ancient Greece. It is thought that the first cheesecake was born on the Greek island of Samos. Considered by the Greeks to be a source of energy, cheesecake was eaten by athletes at the first Olympic Games.

In the 5th century B.C. the Greek physician Aegimus is said to have written the first known recipe for a cheesecake. Cream cheese was introduced to cheesecake in 1872 when William Lawrence accidentally discovered a process that resulted in cream cheese while trying to recreate a French cheese called Neufchatel. Distributed in foil packaging, this became known as Philadelphia Cream Cheese.

A bit of bad news for Americans, but the saying “As American as Apple Pie” doesn’t exactly tie up with the origin of apple pie. The first recorded apple pie recipe dates back to 1381 in England, where the recipe called for apples to be combined with other fruits such as raisins, figs, and pears, as well as saffron.

Early pie shells were called “coffins” and were actually inedible. Sort of like a disposable baking dish made from pastry. It wasn’t until the 1500’s that recipes started improving for the pastry shells, and the whole pie became a tasty treat.

Also known as the Mille-Feuille (“thousand layers” in French) one could say that the history of the Napoleon Cake is itself quite layered.

Made with multiple layers of cake and cream, one story says that the Napoleon Cake was invented somewhere in 18th century France by a collaboration of French pastry chefs who wanted to showcase their culinary skills and impress the nobility. Another story says that it was introduced in 1912 in Russia to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the defeat of Napoleon. It’s a New Year’s Eve staple in many Russian households and, while it may be similar to the French emperor in fame, it certainly isn’t in stature, for the cake stands tall with at least eight tiers, and sometimes as many as 20.

American’s have always had a knack for getting around laws that interfered with their enjoyment of the simple things in life (take Prohibition, for example). Well, believe it or not, the Ice Cream Sundae was most likely created as a way to get around doing something illegal as well.

Blue laws are religious laws in the United States that restrict activities that could be considered “sinful” (we may look a little deeper at some of these in a future blog post….). In the late 1800’s, there was a Blue Law on the books in some states that made it illegal to sell ice cream sodas on Sunday. Some religious groups were against what they called “sucking sodas” and insisted that they be banned on the Sabbath (We can only imagine what they must think of Cherries Jubilee). This ban on Sunday soda sales was a big problem for those deviant aficionados of root beer floats or other ice cream sodas. Ithaca, New York and Two Rivers, Wisconsin have engaged in a decades long feud over which one first invented the ice cream sundae when a customer came into a store on a Sunday looking for the cool relief of an ice cream soda but, to get around the Blue Laws, the soda was replaced with chocolate sauce. In 2006, the Two Rivers City Council enacted a formal resolution which states:

The City of Ithaca is hereby directed to cease and desist from its continued claims of being the ‘Birthplace of the Ice Cream Sundae.’ Lest the City of Two Rivers be forced to take further action to set the historical record straight.

(The most expensive ice cream sundae can be ordered at Serendipity 3 in New York City for a mere $1,000. USD)

Most of us will/are, unknowingly, be forever grateful to an 11-year old boy by the name of Frank Epperson who, in 1905, accidentally created the Popsicle on a cold winter night in San Francisco, California.

Frank had mixed a powdered fruit-flavored drink with water and left it outside overnight with the stirring stick still in the cup. The temperature dropped and the mixture froze solid. He found it a deliciously refreshing treat on a stick and named it the “Epsicle”. In 1923 he applied for a patent for his creation, changing the name at the urging of his children to “Popsicle” (get it? Pop’s Sicle). In 1925 he sold the rights to the Joe Lowe Company which then began mass-producing and marketing those frozen sticks of joy.

And, while it’s not a sweet nor technically even a dessert, we’re including one more snack that is something that we can never eat just one of – the mighty Potato Chip.

It is believed that the potato chip was first created in the 1853 by George Crum, a chef working at Moon’s Lake House, a resort in Saratoga Springs, New York. Evidently a customer at the resort, who was known for being very particular about his food, ordered a plate of fried potatoes. The customer kept sending them back, claiming they were too soggy and thick. This frustrated George Crum, who decided to teach the customer a lesson. In an act of defiance, Crum sliced the potatoes paper-thin, fried them until they were crisp, and then heavily salted them.

To his surprise (and our great happiness), the customer loved the thin, crispy potato slices – and potato chips were born!

Now we’ve come to the end of our delectably bizarre journey through the murky annals of dessert history. As we peeled back the layers of sugar-coated nostalgia, it’s pretty apparent that the origins of these beloved treats are as convoluted as a tangled ball of licorice. From the Olympian beginnings of the Cheesecake to the historically significant Napoleon Cake which, while bearing no resemblance to the emperor has a terrifying ability to conquer our taste buds, we find ourselves marveling at the haphazard evolution of these sugary delights.

And isn’t that the beauty of it all? In this world of gastronomic chaos, where desserts can be born from chance encounters, misunderstood instructions, or simply a stroke of culinary madness, we’re reminded that, even in the sweetest of moments, life has a way of deliciously surprising us.

So, let’s raise our spoons to the unsung heroes of the dessert world, those who accidentally stumbled upon greatness and left a delectable legacy in their wake. And the next time you sink your teeth into a sumptuous piece of cake or savor a spoonful of custard, take a moment to appreciate the quirkiness, whimsy, and even sarcasm that brought that dessert to your plate. After all, there’s nothing quite like a little sugar-coated eccentricity to sweeten our world.

#dessert #sweet #desserts #sweets #cooking #baking #cookies #cakes #pastries #pastry #custard #icecream #sorbet #potatochips #cheese #cheesecake #popsicles #pie #pavlova #russia #france #newyork #alaska #wisconsin #baked #baking #bake #bettycrocker #cookbook #nestle #anyhigh