April 19, 2017 – Proust’s famous little Madeleines

Madeleines

A dense butter cake – recipe origin:

Lorraine Region of NE France.

Madeleines were made famous by

author Marcel Proust’s

Remembrance of Things Past.

Pronounced “Mad-lien” – two syllables.

        How can anyone escape noticing these sea shell fluted little cakes often featured in main stream magazines over the years?  Purchasing Madeleine pans were inscribed on my secret wish list in my head every time I saw them as I cut out and saved countless recipes for them.

        Many years ago during a lunch break from work, I browsed in a gourmet gadget and cooking implements store and actually got to “finger” Madeleine pans.   Lucky me, there was a sale that day and the sales clerk suggested, from her personal experience, that I would want to buy at least two pans.  Taking her advice, I didn’t hesitate and bought two.

        A few days later on a Saturday morning while my husband was out golfing I test drove the Madeleine pans and quickly discovered that two pans only managed to handle one-half of the batter for the recipe.  I had to stop, wash, re-butter, and re-flour the pans in the middle of the bake.

        Needless to say, next payday I went back to the gourmet gadget store and bought two more pans.  I am the proud owner of four matching Madeleine pans which make a batch of 48 little cakes.

        You might remember one of my earlier blogs where I pointed out that my Mom used to ask me what kind of cake I’d like for my birthday and  I’d always answer some sort of PIE.  It’s not the cake I don’t care for, it’s the frosting.  I rarely find frosting to my liking with the only exception being that seven minute boiled frosting that only a handful of ‘good cooks’ can master. 

        But, these little butter cakes, which the pans are specifically designed for, seem to not require frosting as the toasted edges seem to enhance the sweetness or the edges of the cakes, much like the top and sides of old fashioned pound cakes do.

        Soon after my acquisition of these pans, I needed to make an unexpected-event dessert and I rummaged in my pantry for my usual spice cake mix staple.  I keep the mix on hand specifically for the Oatmeal Spice cookies which keep well, are moist, taste great and make a large batch in a super-easy, fast way. [Recipe in tomorrow's blog.]

        In my emergency-need-a-dessert dilemma, I threw caution to the wind and tried the store bought spice cake mix in my Madeleine pans.  I surprisingly got RAVE reviews from everyone as the little cakes turned out ultra-soft with a subtle spice flavor that made them special.  Some I dusted with confectionery sugar when they were cold and some I didn’t.

        Moral of that baking story:  I am no longer a purest when it comes to making my Madeleines.  I drag the pans out a least once a year and today I happen to be baking a sweet for the annual Tea Party put on by The Ladies’ Guild at our church.

        Today I used pound cake mixes with the addition of orange flavoring and orange zest.  They came out great.

        I hope this gives you the idea of experimenting with traditional methods versus saving-time cake mixes.

Bon Appetite!