Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Stop me if you’ve heard this one… But seriously, according to one tale a French baker and a Polish King would collaborate in bringing to the world one of the most beloved French confections … the Madeleine. There’s as many theories about the origins of the Madeleine as the origins of the Universe, though not as much fervent argument (I think. Uh-oh, maybe I was wrong). My favorite is still the one about the Polish King who became so enamored with the petite cake when he tasted it that he named it after Madeleine, the French servant who baked them. At least King Stanisław Leszczyński had some sweets to cheer him up when he was in exile from his country.

Of course the history of the Madeleine doesn’t just include Kings and Queens. You’ve got your literary references as well. Who can forget it was Proust who gave the Madeleine much acclaim in Remembrance of Things Past. Talk about being enamored, “…at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory – this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence … I had ceased now to feel mediocre, contingent, mortal.” Now I’ve been known to drown my sorrows with sweets, but I don’t remember ever having one of those experiences. “I had ceased not to feel … mortal”!? Wow. Maybe I’m just not that type of a writer. I’d love to eat something that made me feel like a superhero.

You may remember from a previous post that I had been in search of a Madeleine Pan. Fate smiled down on me last week and I found one. I finally got to use it the other day when I made the Orange-Cardamom Madeleines from Martha Stewart’s Cookies book. Of course my original plan was to do a half recipe of the Orange-Cardamom Madeleines and a half recipe of the traditional Lemon Madeleines. I can’t keep doing full recipes of everything otherwise I’ll be crane-worthy to get out of the house. My plan was bigger than my ability (as usual), and I only ended up with the half batch of Orange-Cardamoms. I’m kind of glad though because I think I’ll end up trying this recipe for the more traditional Madeleines. There’s an article about the baker and a repeat of the recipe here (this is actually where I first came across it, but I wanted a link to the original baker since she did a post about it on her blog). I like the idea of using the browned butter.   Click to continue…

Tagged as: Oops!, Orange, Recipe!

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