Joe’s all-time favorite dessert

Let’s be honest, as bakers there are the sweets we’re supposed to love with a great passion (perfect éclairs and chocolate croissants, crispy, citrus-scented tuiles and Hermé macarons) and then the sweets we really do love with a great passion. This is mine, at least when the weather is warm: ice cold home-canned peaches just out of the refrigerator, alongside a pair of thin and crispy — frozen — chocolate chip cookies. I can’t explain this passion rationally, for it really makes no sense. Peaches and chocolate aren’t a stellar combo, especially when the chips are frozen so hard you can barely taste them. I guess it’s all the texture contrasts that I enjoy so much, the combination of the brown sugar and fruit, and the sweet coolness of it all when it’s hot out. Late on some warm evening, when the girls are in bed, I’ll settle down with a bowl like this in front of some nerdy Discovey Channel science show. Pure heaven.

Why do I bring it up? Because reader Cindy R. asked me how I like my chocolate chip cookies. This is it.