Madeleines - French Snack Cakes With a History

Have you ever baked something so appreciated in your home that you need to multiply the recipe?

Whenever I bake Madeleines, I have to multiply the recipe by 5 because my kids (my husband and I too) love them so much.

But do you know what are Madeleines other than " little shell of cake, so generously sensual"?

The madeleine is a traditional small cake from Commercy and Liverdun, two communes of the Lorraine region in northeastern France.

Madeleines are French sponge cakes with a distinctive shell-like shape acquired from being baked in pans with shell-shaped depressions. Aside from the traditional molded pan, commonly found in stores specializing in kitchen equipment and even hardware stores, no special tools are required to make madeleines.

According to one story the name "Madeleine" was given to the cookies by Louis XV to honor his father in-law's cook, Madeleine Paulmier. Louis first tasted them at the Chateau Commercy in Lorraine in 1755. Louis' wife, Marie introduced them to the court and they soon became all the rage at Versailles.

However, they were made famous by Marcel Proust in his autobiographical novel À la recherche du temps perdu, translated Remembrance of Things Past. This novel was left unfinished upon his death, and his brothers published the book in 1923. He wrote:

She sent for one of those squat plump little cakes called "petites madeleines," which look as though they had been molded in the fluted valve of a scallop shell … I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake. No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure invaded my senses …And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray … when I went to say good morning to her in her bedroom, my aunt Leonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane …. and the whole of Combray and its surroundings, taking shape and solidity, sprang into being, town and garden alike, from my cup of tea.

 

It is not fair to talk about those little cakes without giving you an opportunity to taste them, but first you will have to bake them. They are very easy to bake and you will see everyone in your home will love them. 

MADELEINES recipe                      

                                    

 Ingredients:1 egg
¼ cup sugar
Vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
¼ cup flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ cup melted butter
   1-     Turn on oven to 425° F.
2-     Beat with an electric whisk egg, sugar and salt until the mixture become creamy and white.
3-     With a wooden spoon, add flour and baking powder and finally add melted butter. Mix vigorously to obtain a very smooth mixture.
4-     Butter and flour the mold if you are not using silicon mold.
5-     File a teaspoon of dough in each alveolus. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.