Cookies: Commercial Cookie Production Diversifies

Manufacturers eventually added cookie mixes to their product lines. In 1947 General Mills introduced its first “Betty Crocker GingerCake Mix,” and two years later it reappeared as “GingerCake and Cooky Mix.” In 1953 Pillsbury introduced its “Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix.”

Homemade cookie dough formed into rolls and refrigerated for slicing and baking at a later time, called “icebox cookies,” first appeared in the 1930s, coincident with the widespread use of electric refrigerators in American homes. By the 1950s prepared foods were fashionable, and in 1957 Pillsbury introduced its refrigerated cookie dough, called “Ice Box Cookies,” in three flavors: butterscotch nut, crunchy peanut, and coconut. Chocolate chip and sugar cookies soon followed, and Americans eventually could choose from a broad range of both refrigerated and frozen cookie dough.