Goûter: After-school snacking French-style

Vanilla Pudding from Mardi Michels' "French Food for Everyone"

Hello! Hello!

Even though everyone in my family has been out of school for a while - and Gemma's got a couple of years before she's got to fill a backpack with books - Fall still feels like back-to-school for me. And since I always loved school, I still love this time of year. I love the sense of anticipation. I love thinking back to the fun of finishing a day of school and coming home to a snack. I always lived close enough to school that I walked home, and I always came home to cookies. Never homemade - my mom never baked - but always there.

In France, as my friend, the teacher and author Mardi Michels, says in her latest book, French Food for Everyone, that after-school snack, called le goûter (goo-tay), is usually something sweet. It's often, as it was chez me, something store-bought, often a pain au chocolat (a chocolate-filled croissant) bought at the neighborhood bakery.

This chapter of the book - Mardi's releasing the book chapter-by-chapter - is all about about afternoon snacks …