As the cookie crumbles

What's the most famous cookie in the world? You might think the Oreo. After all, it is the world's best-selling cookie. Available in more than 100 countries there have been nearly 500 billion sold since its inception.

Or you might think the chocolate chip cookie. Unlike the Oreo, it's most often made at home and is the subject of cookie lore, having been allegedly invented by accident at the Toll House Inn in Massachusetts.

But neither the Oreo nor the Chocolate Chip cookie has been immortalized by a mammoth work of great literature. That claim to fame belongs to the Madeleine, a small shell-shaped tea cake that has become the emblematic cookie of France, so emblematic in fact that despite their relative plainness, a few years back they were France's entrant in a celebration of the best cakes and cookies from the European Union. With ingredients and proportions resembling a classic pound cake, they are spongy on the inside, while their diminutive size makes them crispy on the outside.

Even those who have never quite finished reading Marcel Proust's seven-volume novel "Remembrance of Things Past" (and at over 4000 pages who can blame them?) probably nonetheless are familiar with the episode of the Madeleine chronicled in the story.

Proust recounts how he bit into a Madeleine that had been dipped in tea and was overcome by a flood of memories:

French Madeleines, classic cookies resembling pound cake, cool on a rack after being removed from their unique shell-shaped pans.

No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs

touched my palate than a shudder ran through me ... An

exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses ... Whence did

did it come? And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The

taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings ... my aunt Leonie used to give me.

Nevermind that in an earlier draft of the novel it was a piece of toast that prompted forgotten memories, thanks to Proust the Madeleine has ever since gotten all the credit.

Proust, however, hardly invented the Madeleine. It was created long before he got around to immortalizing it, but by whom is not entirely clear. There are any number of origin stories, all, not surprisingly, featuring someone named Madeleine.

But most scholars subscribe to the account of a reception put on by King Stanislas in the Duchy of Lorraine in 1755. During dinner the King was informed that his pastry chef had become angry for some reason, submitted his resignation, and left the premises.

Hoping to save face for the King, his butler scrambled to rectify the situation. While guests were occupied with entertaining diversions, the kitchen staff hustled to get something on the table. Soon enough what amounted to a tray of original Madeleines was brought out

The King was so delighted he called for the creator of the dessert to come out of the kitchen. A young maiden, according to the story her hands still coated with flour, appeared. The King asked her the name of the delicacy. When she told him it had no name, he promptly decreed that it be christened after her. Being way ahead of me, you know her name was Madeleine.

Chocolate Chip Madeleines

Fundamentally Madeleines are not difficult to make, as this recipe adapted from Barbara Feldman Morse's beautiful book on the subject demonstrates. You can bake these in a mini-muffin pan, but to be true Madeleines they need to be baked in a genuine Madeleine pan with shell-shaped cavities.

• 1-1/2 sticks room temperature buter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon orange extract
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 1/4 cup Triple Sec
• 1-1/2 cups flour
• 1-1/3 cups mini chocolate chips

Microwave butter and sugar on low power for one to two minutes. Whisk until smooth. Cool three to four minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, whisking until fully blended. Add orange extract, vanilla, zest, and Triple Sec and whisk thoroughly. Add flour until just combined. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes or until cold. Fold in chocolate chips. Coat two 12-shell Madeleine pans with non-stick spray and fill each mold almost full with batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 13 to 14 minutes until puffed up and lightly browned. Cool two to three minutes before removing from pan.