A taste of France

I was very excited to finally make the Madeleine's! My mother in-law, Tammi, who lives in Utah bought and sent me a silicone Madeleine pan. So tonight I put it to the test!

Madeleine's are a traditional cake that come from northeastern France. These date back to the 18th century. They are very small, have a sponge like texture and have a very distinct shell shape to them.

They were VERY easy to make. Although, you have to allow a little extra time for these. Once your done beating the batter, you have to let it sit in the fridge for about twenty minutes.

Now, this was my very first time making them so I wasn't sure on the measurements for the cups or how they were going to turn out. I filled my shell shaped cups about 2/3 of the way full. I did spread the batter evenly across the cup, to get the batter into all the nooks.

Twenty minutes later, I took them out of the oven. They didn't look to bad, some were more puffy then others but that's okay. You live and they learn as you say. Speaking of learning....next time I should remember to grease the pan...it might help a little. Even though the pan is silicone, I intended to spray a little of my mom into it. (Pam cooking spray. My mom's name is Pam...it's a running joke in my family. When growing up I used to help my mom out a lot in the kitchen, and she always had me reach for the next ingredient. So when it was time for the cooking spray she would always ask, "can you hand me, ME?") So when I took the Madeleine's out, the bottom or should I say the top, didn't turn out so "shell like" They had lost a lot of their decoration.

This recipe in particular called for a glaze. The recipe uses way to much of each ingredient. Anyone making this can easily cut the glaze down to a quarter of the recipe. I had plenty to spare. What a waste. The glaze was just sifted confectioners' sugar, orange zest, a pinch of salt, and softened sweet butter.

These came out pretty tasty I must admit. My husband said, "that's a pretty good cake ya got there!"

So I really do want to give these a second go. I think after I remember to spray cooking oil, and use a little less batter in each cup, I'll have a pretty good thing on my hands. The book has a chocolate Madeleine recipe. So that should be pretty yummy.

Photography: Travis J. Premo