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Delicious madeleines stir flood of memories

Madeleines
Madeleines

Part cake. Part cookie. All delicious.

That's the best way I know to describe madeleines. The French baked good that is most often baked into the shape of a seashell. Sweet, but not cloying. Delicate, but sturdy enough to eat with your fingers.

Firm details on the origin of the little cakes are somewhat vague, but according to Barbara Feldman Morse in her book Madeleines, they are believed to have been named after Madeleine Paulmier, a pastry chef in Commercy, Lorraine, France. But the little cakes are most closely associated with Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time, more commonly known as Remembrance of Things Past. It is the involuntary flood of memories evoked by a spoonful of tea and madeleine crumbs in volume one of the seven-part novel that is known as the "madeleine moment."

My madeleine moment isn't nearly as transformative as Proust's.

My mind flashes to a meeting with Mom and Pop Friendly Finance Co. over coffee and madeleines. The business at hand involved joint savings accounts, down payments and interest rates. Not very exciting stuff. But it was one of those moments that solidified my adulthood. And a bite of madeleine and sip of coffee can give me a surge of confidence, reminding me of my success and in turn my parents', for their part in creating the woman I have become.

In reality, the baked good Proust enjoyed with his tea was not truly a madeleine, as Edmund Levin pointed out in his 2005 Slate.com article. Proust describes crumbling the madeleine into a cup of tea and taking a spoonful of soaked crumbs. Madeleines are like tiny sponge cakes. They do not crumble.

But even if these little vanilla-lemon-almond scented cakes weren't the true impetus for Proust's most famous work -- and maybe they don't have the power to intoxicate you with nostalgia and sweet memories of childhood or adulthood accomplishments -- they will tantalize your taste buds.

Madeleines

12 tablespoons butter, divided use

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

3 eggs

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest (I use a Microplane brand zester)

Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Melt 8 tablespoons of the butter; set aside to cool.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder.

In a mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the eggs and sugar. Beat with an electric mixer on medium-high speed for 3 to 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add the extracts and zest and beat on medium 1 minute. Fold in the flour just until mixed. Drizzle in the melted and cooled butter and mix to incorporate.

Let batter rest while the oven heats.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt the remaining butter. Brush the wells of 2 (12-shell) madeleine pans with melted butter. Divide batter among wells. Gently tap or shake pans to settle the batter. Bake 10 minutes or until madeleines are puffed and golden brown.

Let madeleines cool in pans for about 3 minutes, then invert pans to remove madeleines to cool on a wire rack. Once cool, dust with confectioners' sugar.

Makes 24 madeleines.

Recipe adapted from Madeleines: Elegant French Tea Cakes to Bake and Share by Barbara Feldman Morse

Food on 10/26/2016

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