Frankencookies as surrogate marker for a world without real food

I'm not suggesting homemade Toll House cookies are good for you -- flour and sugar are pretty much my kryptonite. But I do think the comparison between the original Toll House cookie recipe I grew up making and the ingredients of Nestle's Toll House frozen cookie dough are a damn good surrogate marker for everything that's wrong with how we eat today.

Toll House cookie recipe:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) chocolate chips

Ingredient list of Nestle's Toll House frozen cookie dough:

Bleached Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Sugar, Hot Fudge Filling (High Fructose Corn Syrup, Hydrogenated Coconut Oil,Corn Syrup, Sugar, Water, Cocoa [Processed with Alkali], Non-Fat Milk, Modified Cornstarch, Disodium Phosphate, Salt, Potassium Sorbate[Preservative], Soy Lecithin, Artificial Flavor),Margarine (Palm Oil, Water, Sunflower Oil, Hydrogenated Cottonseed Oil, Salt, Vegetable Mono & Diglycerides, Soy Lecithin, Natural & Artificial Flavors, Vitamin A Palmitate Added, Beta Carotene [Color], Whey), Nestle Toll House Morsels (Semi-Sweet Chocolate [Sugar,Chocolate, Cocoa Butter, Milkfat, Soy Lecithin, Vanillin-an Artificial Flavor, Natural Flavor]), Water, Eggs, Molasses, Salt, Baking Soda (Contains Soy Lecithin), Vanilla Extract, Vanillin-an Artificial Flavor.

Transfats, high-fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors, and preservatives. And a whole generation of children growing up thinking you make cookies by taking a hunk of Frankenfood out of the freezer and heating it in the oven.

Comments

[Lindsay]

Sweets are my weak spot. I never realized the frozen dough was so different from the recipe on the chocolate chip bag. Makes sense. Interesting post. I do try to make as much food as possible at home, using real, pronounceable ingredients.