Mais Bien Sûr!
Allan at Laura Wood's The Thinking Housewife writes about the memories as a young boy with his father:
I remember the screen door, the sink in the corner, the radio on the kitchen table, and a picture he kept on a wall showing his brother with his teammates on an amateur baseball team in 1930. I remember the nights we sat there with a glass of orange juice and a plate of chocolate chip cookies.Americans will pass by this paragraph which mentions in passing the ever-prominent Chocolate Chip Cookie. It is a given that chocolate chip cookies are part of the American culinary tradition.
But ask a Frenchman what kind of chocolate sweets he likes and he may say: "Mais bien sûr, but of course, mousse au chocolat" or perhaps go on a long tirade on the many many kinds of delicious and superior French chocolate sweets, but he will never mention the chocolate chip cookie, and may even turn his pointy narrow nose as it, if pressed for a culinary critique, and even more so at the thought that it may have influenced his childhood palette.
Ask a Brit and his best response would be "chocolate pudding, of course!" But the Brits are never modest, especially when on a gastronomic war with a pointy-nosed Frenchman.
But baking a chocolate chip cookie is a labor of love. I know, I've tried it. You cannot get it too soft, nor too hard. The chips should stay in place and not spread out into a melted frenzy. The inside of the cookie should be soft while the outside has a crunch that lets your teeth sink into it.
And above all kids MUST like the final product. If they leave the dozen or so baked goodies on the plate placed specifically meant for them at the the kitchen counter, then you know something's not right.
Chocolate chip cookies are an art form. Whoever says "not so" - "pas du tout," and with a clothespin pinching in his nose - needs to have his taste buds checked.