I ’m not usually the eccentric of English John Major to start a narrative by cite Marcel Proust , but hear me out for a second . In his seven - volume novel " In Search of Lost Time " ( also translated as " Remembrance of Things Past " ) , Proust exit off about a particular concoction that could n’t be more relevant to my current office :
" An exquisite pleasurehad encroach upon my senses , something isolate , detached , with no suggestion of its origin . And at once the vicissitudes of life had become unbiased to me , its tragedy innocent , its briefness illusory … "
He goes on ( and on ) , but spoiler alert : He ’s talking about acake . A specific kind of cake that , perhaps like me , you once err for a cookie , but trust me , dear reader : The madeleine is no biscuit . I should eff , as I used my second week of COVID-19 quarantine to go on an unnecessarily deep honkytonk into the French dainty ’s ins and outs .
After key out two baking pans bearing the signature scallop moulding in my boyfriend ’s kitchen cabinets ( why he had two of these casually lying around , I ca n’t recount you ) , I made it my mission to master the spongy sweet ( called agenoisein French ) . But that was back when I think the madeleine was a somewhat — if not ace - tedious — snack you could easily just purchase at Starbucks . small did I bonk that obsessively act on its idealistic preference and shape could temporarily dull life ’s vicissitude and disaster in the aftermath of a pandemic .
A History of the Madeleine and the Hunt for the Hump
Madeleineshave rootsin the French town of Commercy and 18th century nuns purportedly sold the goody to hold themselves and their schools . One legend has it that the little cakes take their name from a young servant girl named Madeleine who made them for the deposed king of Poland , Stanislas Leszczynska , when he was exiled to Lorraine . Another interpretation of the origin story state of matter that Jean Avice , considered the " master of choux pastry , " invented the madeleine in the 19th century .
Whatever you believe to be the straight birth story of the madeleine , believe me when I say just about every culinary expert and food blogger on the planet has a dissimilar musical theme about what take a shit a madeleine a madeleine . But the most characteristic and controversial feature of the snack cake has to be the gibbousness . That stupid hump I quite honestly never noticed until my swain pointed out that it ’s what had kept him from using those genus Pan in the closet : Madeleines are think to have a extrusion and attaining the protuberance is hard work .
Some saythe prominence is all about create a sudden drop in temperature , so cool down the slugger and even freezing the cooking pan before broil is crucial . Others are adamantthat the protrusion ( sometimes called a " belly " ) is only achievable through the consumption ofbaking powderwhich is obviously " frowned upon by purists " who say the protuberance is a natural merchandise ofthoroughly beat up ballock . As a completely amateur baker with no other motive than to get out from the horror show that 2020 has become , I limit out on a small quest to achieve madeleine wideness .
Batch No. 1
The Kitchnis a solid go - to source for precious , Instagram - worthydesserts , so when a quick Google search twist up their formula for " classic French madeleines , " I thought mayhap I ’d receive victory in my first passel . Their recipe called for all the necessity — unsalted butter , sugar , flour , egg and vanilla — plus a heavy Elvis of lemon zest and lemon succus . Baking gunpowder was conspicuously miss from the leaning , plunk for up my former inquiry that " classic " and " authentic " madeleine makers just do n’t use it . They also apprise to let the greased pan sit in the freezer for an time of day before baking and to call on the pans halfway through baking . I figured all that workplace would result in magically humpy madeleines , but when they emerged from the oven , my first batch of madeleines — while beautiful — were pretty flat . My beau and I harmonise that the extra lemony core was a expectant bonus , both flavor and aroma - wise , and the overall gustatory modality was lovely . They just were n’t as cakey as we ’d expected . On to batch two .
Batch No. 2
If bulge were what we were going for , protuberance were what I would look for out . So I did . I literally Googled " Madeleines , protuberance " and came uponBaking Like a Chef ’s recipe for " perfect French madeleines . " The hump in the exposure were almost uncouth — these madeleines expect wildly unlike from the ones I ’d initially baked , and the recipe writer claim she could create humps as grandiloquent as an column inch and a half ( 4 centimeters ) . I had to give it a pellet . This batch called for baking powder , and not an insignificant amount : 2 teaspoons , which in the baking world , can make a big difference . The recipe also predict for twice the butter of the first batch and several more egg ( even after I scale it down to make 24 cakes , not the 36 it was intended to produce ) . And while baking powder might be " frowned upon " by purist , holy moly , you guys — the humps were no prank . This formula also called for the madeleines to sit in the oven for up to 10 second after a very inadequate initial bake metre ( three moment ) , and then to broil for an additional five minutes . Whether it was just the baking powder or a combining of all those component , the outcome was airy , spongey , cakey , humpy good and my boyfriend enounce these were " 95 pct stark " ( he missed the uttermost lemoniness of quite a little one ) which frankly , I ’ll take as a success .
Batch No. 3
I figured if I was last to give it one more shot , I ’d search to the ikon . After taking an loose Instagram poll , my small but opinionative observe made it clear that they wanted to see the results of Julia Child ’s recipe over Martha Stewart ’s , so I set out to retroflex Julia ’s recipe , viaHungry Sofia . This one had no baking powder , a fair amount of gamboge , and a relatively foresighted baking time ( 15 minutes ) , not to mention it come up from Julia freakin ' Child , so I figured this would be the one to get me to perfection . I refrigerated one cooking pan before baking , as the recipe suggested , but stuck the other in the Deepfreeze because I infer I all of a sudden fancied myself a scientist running an arduous and scrumptious experiment . The refrigerate pan batch ( i.e. , the one that abide by the accurate recipe ) was less than optimal . They looked slightly anaemic compared to the humpy giant of batch two , and they were browned to the spot of looking overcooked . The frozen genus Pan muckle turned out prettier , but the humps were still less than telling . And while I list off all the thing we base wrong with this hatful , it ’s authoritative to remember that we still demolished nearly two dozen in less than a day .
In the end , I learned that despite what any culinary expert or Proustian school text may tell you about what delineate a " ripe " cake or biscuit or whatever you ’re mixing up , the procedure of creating , consuming and sharing those treats is really what produce them so sweet . Also , loads of sugar .
