May 15th is National Chocolate Chip Day! Do we all agree that chocolate chips deserve their own holiday? You know I like my fun facts, so here is the history of the chocolate chip and its most popular recipe, the chocolate chip cookie: Like many great things, the cookies were invented by mistake. Ruth Graves Wakefield, our heroine, was baking chocolate cookies for her guests at the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts. When she ran out of baking chocolate, she substituted by chopping up some semi-sweet chocolate and adding the morsels to the cookie dough. When the cookies were done, she found that the chocolate pieces had not melted into the cookies like she thought they would, but it all ends well anyway. Her guests went crazy over these new cookies and a delicious recipe was created. The new recipe needed a new specialty ingredient, and in 1941 Nestle began selling chocolate chips.

Today, 25% of cookies baked in the United States are chocolate chip. Get me into a room with freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, and all my good dieting intentions go out the window! My ideal cookie is the perfect balance of chewiness and crunch holding slightly gooey chocolate pieces- gets me every time! But enough about the cookies- the day is really all about the chocolate chips. Chocolate chips are a great ice cream topping, muffin or pancake add-in, and even when you make a healthy choice like yogurt, a few chocolate chips can go a long way without causing too much damage. Chocolate chips are a must-have at any cake or cookie decorating party. When you are using a recipe that requires melting chocolate, starting off with chocolate chips will make that job a lot easier and faster than having to chop up a larger piece of chocolate.

The very fact that chocolate chips exist is reason enough to celebrate, isn’t it? I have been known to snack on them straight from the bag, and I do recommend it! It’s a good way to ensure portion control and still indulge. And don’t forget that dark chocolate (okay, in moderation) is actually good for you, so if that’s the kind you like, tell yourself it’s a healthy snack. I could give you my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, but I don’t want to mess with copyright issues, so I will send you here for recipes to celebrate this very important holiday. Happy National Chocolate Chip Day!