Making Madeleines

To kick off our experimental loaner program, one of the first things I borrowed from The Concord Shop was a madeleine pan.  I’ve never made madeleines before because I’ve never had the required pan, and I try not to make a habit of buying one-use items.  Even one-use items that result in delicate, lemony teacakes.

[Husband would just like to interject to say that I have PLENTY of one-use-items, and he will refer you to Exhibit A: the cake pedestal.  Which, yes, I own.  And I will readily admit that not very many meticulously constructed, pedestal-worthy cakes get made on my watch.  However, I got that cake pedestal as a wedding gift.  I merely added it to the registry.  If somebody else agreed that, yes, I should have a cake pedestal on my wedding day, that, in fact, one’s wedding day is the perfect day for such a gift, then I think certain husbands should take that up with the friend in question, not me.  And, anyway, if you can’t satisfy your deepest, most profound culinary desires on your wedding day, then I’d like to know when you can.]

So, madeleines.  Right.  By law, I am now required to talk about Marcel Proust and his early childhood memories of France conjured up by tea-soaked madeleines in his epic, semi-autobiographical novel In Search of Lost Time.  I have not read this book, nor do I have any similar nostalgic remembrances to report.  My only memory of madeleines are from a Madrid subway station during my junior year abroad, where I purchased something billed as a madeleine and was struck by how genuinely tasty it was.  This, I remember thinking, really illustrates the difference between Europe and the U.S.  In Europe, you can buy quality confections in the bowels of the subway.  Some days later, I returned to that same subterranean pastry case and bought a cream-filled something or other, and just barely made it to my stop before I threw up the whole curdled mess.  It would seem that all of my autobiographical stories come back to vomit.

But not anymore.  Here’s what madeleines conjure up to me now: a pleasant and windy Sunday afternoon spent nibbling the soft, buttery cakes with a mug of chamomile tea while everyone else was watching the football game.  Warmth and comfort.  Now I’m thinking a madeleine pan might be a one-use item I could stand to have around. 

 

Madeleines 

This makes enough batter to fill one standard-sized madeleine pan, plus a little extra for eating straight out of the bowl.  No one, not even Proust, will cure me of that habit.

2/3 cup all-purpose flour
¾ tsp. baking powder
Pinch of salt
½ cup sugar
Grated zest of 1 lemon
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
Confectioner’s sugar for dusting

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl), rub the sugar and lemon zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and fragrant.  Add the eggs to the bowl.  Working with the whisk attachment (or a hand mixer), beat the eggs and sugar together on medium-high speed until pale, thick, and light (2-3 minutes).  Beat in the vanilla.  With a rubber spatula, very gently fold in the dry ingredients, followed by the melted butter.  Press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the batter and refrigerate at least 3 hours, or up to 2 days.  This relaxes the gluten and makes a more tender cake.

Preheat the oven to 400°F and center a rack in the oven.  Take one end of a stick of butter and apply a thick, chapstick-like coating to the madeleine pan.  Use a paper towel to smear the butter entirely into the crevices.  Dust the insides with flour and tap out excess.  Place the pan on a baking sheet.  Spoon the batter into the molds, filling them not quite to the top.  Batter will spread in the oven, so don't worry about smoothing the tops.  You don't want to deflate your lovely batter.  If you accidentally overfill the molds, you will end up with a lip around the edges like mine, which is only a very minor aesthetic issue.   Bake 11 to 13 minutes, or until the tops are golden and the tops spring back when touched.  Remove from oven and rap edge of pan against the counter to release the madeleines, nudging them out with your fingers.  Transfer cakes to a rack to cool.  Dust with sifted confectioner’s sugar before serving.

Source: Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Local Business Credits:
Madeleine pan, green Emile Henry mug: The Concord Shop, Concord, MA
Butter: Cabot, Cabot, VT
Eggs: Chip-in Farm, Bedford, MA

Comments

[Leah]

Is there a reason these *have* to be made in a Madeleine pan? What if you made them in the bottom of cupcake pans, or deviled egg trays (if you had oven-safe ones), or some other kind of forms?

[Jane U.]

Thanks for this. This, as you know, is my four-year-old's name - spelled the exact same way. She loves these cookies and I've been promising her we'd make them! Now I have no excuse!

[Tammy]

Jane: Want to borrow the pan before I return it?

Leah: No reason beyond tradition. I've considered making them in cupcake pans myself, though they won't have the same visual grace. Deviled egg forms are a good idea. I've heard of people just using a loaf pan like a regular pound cake. In that case, you'd probably want to double this recipe and increase the cooking time substantially.

[Amy]

I've never made these either. Maybe because I do not have a madeleine pan. No. That would interfere with my trifle bowl which I've used once, blow torch that I've used twice, and an apron that I've never used...they sure look/sound good, though.

[Erin]

After discovering my oldest childs love of these cookies during a Starbucks run a few years ago, I foolishly shelled-out $20 for the special pan to be a good Mommy and make them myself. However when I researched for a recipe, I found one that called for a pate a choux dough...and realized the $2 for a pack of three at Starbucks would be MUCH easier for the occasional treat. The special pan went into the dark, quiet corner of my pantry.

But now, I'll have to dig for that pan again. Your recipe sounds great and soemthing I can handle.

[Kirsty]

Ah, madeleines... I have my own "Proustian memory" of these... Waaaaaay back when I was doing my finals at university in Scotland (studying French and Spanish literature), I was a somewhat ... er ... unconventional (some would say lazy) student. So, after others had hosted special "Zola revision afternoons" or "Machado revision breakfasts" etc., I volunteered to do the "Proust revision afternoon" at my place. Friends brought class notes, their own detailed notes from their research, their appreciations of Proust's first tome ("Du côté de chez Swann" - amazingly, I had actually read the damn thing, and found it, surprisingly given my usual dislike of pretentious, bourgeois navel-gazing, rather haunting) and I provided homemade madeleines and lime-flower tea (disgusting stuff in my opinion, quickly replaced with the less Proustian but more pleasant Earl Grey). But of course, true to form, I had to add my own character to the madeleines - so I put food colouring in them, ending up with pastel green, blue, pink, yellow, orange... We had a wonderfully elegant afternoon (though I'm not sure we got much work done). I passed my finals, I did my essay on Proust and have always had a soft spot for him, the most Victorian author of the 20th century (which is why we studied him in 19th century literature instead of 20th, even if he wrote in the 20th).
Hope you appreciate my (probably not very good) attempt at Proustian sentences - long, complex, difficult to follow.
If you get the chance, read the book (at least the first one) and, if you don't read French, I would recommend the first (1920s?) translation of it, by someone called Crieff I think, it's much more in line with the original than any modern version I've seen...

[melch]

Those loose ridiculously delicious! I look forward to your continued Concord Shop partnership!

[Red]

All of this reminds me that maybe we didn't send a thank-you note for the cake pedestal you purchased for us on our wedding 10 years ago? Anyway, thank you. It remains one of my favorite one-use tools, too! Though I keep saying it's also a punch or trifle bowl if you turn it upside down and nestle it in the base. Two other things I make a lot.

[Ellen]

Madeleines can become a happy obssession! I justify that one-use pan by making LOTS - I use Paula Peck's recipe, which calls for clarified butter - SWOON! (And the ridges do make for a nicer crust.)