6.22.2010

{sms} (or should I call it sweet melissa tuesday) almond honey madeleines

I am oh-so-late with this post.  Crazy Baking Week was last week and I couldn't squeeze this entry into my schedule.  But I HAD to make these cookies, because I bought the madeleine molds, like, 10 years ago, and they have seen the light of day but twice.

I would bake them more often, but both times these scallop-shaped cookies turned out a bit dry.  I blame it on the miniature-sized mold and over-baking.

I substituted almonds for the hazelnuts, as I had them readily available.  I also added a few drops of almond extract to enhance the almond flavor, as a few people complained about the lack thereof.



Marcel Proust immortalized these cookie-cakes when he wrote about eating one in 
Remembrances of Things Past —

"I raised to my lips a spoonful of the cake... a shudder ran through my whole body,
 and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary changes that were taking place...
 I had ceased now to feel mediocre, contingent, mortal.
Whence could it have come to me, this all-powerful joy?"

He then goes on to describe how the taste of the tea and cake brings to mind a long-forgotten memory. I had my Proustian Moment with The Maple Walnut Cookie, and certainly, the flood of feelings combined with the taste memory is extraordinary.

Not to quibble with Melissa, but I believe that if you were to show this recipe to a pastry chef, she would say that the ingredients more closely resemble a financier than a madeleine.  (Financiers have ground nuts, brown butter, and egg whites; madeleines are a genoise- sponge- batter, using flour and whole eggs. Perhaps that's why these cookies worked out so well for me!)  Regardless, this financier-masquerading-as-a-madeleine is a tasty, moist, delicious cookie, and I'm so glad that Debbie of Café Chibita chose it. You can see the other bakers' results at Sweet Melissa Sundays.

8 comments:

  1. Your madeleines (masquerading as financiers) look amazing! You got a wonderful color on them. Nice call on adding almond extract. Thanks for the info about the Costco madeleines vs financiers! I learn something new everyday. ;)

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  2. Beautiful color! I loved these even if I didn't have madeleine.

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  3. I have to agree with you that these are not Madeleines in the traditional sense, however, they were really really good. I'm glad you enjoyed them too. They look very pretty, with and without the powdered sugar!

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  4. Thank you all for your comments- I really loved the cookies and found it hard to stop at one. This is a definite make-again treat.

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  5. Oh my gosh, I totally had to translate that exact passage by Proust the other day in my French class. :)

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  6. Bethany- that is a lot of translating! He's very descriptive and rather wordy- n'est ce pas?

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  7. Your madeleines look fabulous! It was nice to actually use our madeleine pans, wasn't it? I'd never seen ground nuts in a madeleine recipe, either, but I hadn't made the financier connection. Whatever kind of cookie/cake, they were delicious!

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  8. Gorgeous photography!

    Same here...I've used my mold twice!

    Carmen

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