HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The chocolate-chip cookie celebrated its 75th birthday this year. ... The beauty of the chocolate-chip cookie—and no small part of its enduring popularity—is its flexibility. You can make it with shortening, margarine, or butter; you can make big cookies or small cookies; you can use pecans or walnuts or M. & M.’s or peanut butter; you can use more brown sugar or less; ... It doesn't matter. What comes out will still be recognizable as a chocolate-chip cookie and, most likely, it will taste good.