This weeks pick of Coconut Butter Thins is from Jayne of The Barefoot Kitchen Witch whose post for said cookies is the kind that makes you want to have kids. Unfortunately I didn’t have the lime or the macadamia nuts (for the cookies not the kids). I think they would have probably turned out way better if I had used the proper ingredients and technique. As it stands, I did the best I could with the provisions on hand and the results were….meh.  

Since I didn’t have everything required and was feeling a wee bit unmotivated I decided to forgo the chilling and cutting phase. I took Dorie’s shortbread comparison a bit too much to heart and just threw the dough in a 9 x 9 pan which is what I do with my favorite shortbread recipe. This was a mistake because they weren’t meant to be this thick (hence the name thins, go figure). I think if they were thinner they would have tasted better. I can’t say that they are bad, just….dry? I know, I know, shortbread cookies are on the drier side of the cookie spectrum. But shortbread is dry in a good way, these weren’t. My suggestion is to follow the damn recipe. I’m going to try to follow my own advice and give these another try with the proper ingredients.

One of these days I’m actually going to be on time. It’s going to happen. It’ll probably be the day a giant meteor hits the earth destroying all life on the planet before anyone gets to read it. Figures. This weeks selection is brought to you by Jessica of cookbookhabit.  

A chocolate lovers dream, these heavenly pillows of chocolate euphoria are sure to scratch your itch for the addictive confection. But wait, there’s more! Not only are they packed with a chocolate wallop to the kisser, listing fleur de sel as an ingredient will send you’re mouth into an overload of sweet/salty bliss. They remind me of a refined version of my college days when I used to buy a bag of Hershey’s Kisses and Ruffles Cheddar and Sour Cream chips and alternate eating out of each bag.

I ended up using this French Grey Sea Salt that I bought when I was looking at gourmet salts for the optional caramels that I never made for the November 08 Daring Bakers challenge. I don’t think that it is a strict fleur de sel, and is probably more meant for savory cooking. They still turned out mighty fine if you ask me. I’d like to try this recipe with some of the other gourmet salts that are out there.

I finished them in three ways, some without anything on top, some with Himalayan sea salt, and some with crystal sugar. My Mom loved the ones with the salt on top, but my preference was the sugar of course. If you like your sweet salty, this cookie is for you!

It is ironic that what appears to be the simplest of tasks turns into a laborious challenge. That was the big lesson I learned attempting January’s Daring Bakers Challenge.

This month’s challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.

They also supplied a recipe for savory tuiles from Thomas Keller from the French Laundry and his cookbook of the same name. I ended up trying the basic sweet and savory recipes. (Scroll down for recipes and food porn.)  

Upon first hearing about the challenge I was non-pulsed about it. The batter is simple enough to get together, although some DBs had some trouble. Some found that the butter actually separated from the batter when adding the egg whites in the sweet recipe. Audax Artifex solved this problem, “The next time I added the egg whites in very small batches and used a spatula all the while – no problem.” So I guess when the recipe say to add the egg whites “gradually” they really mean it.

If my troubles with this challenge were as such I would be counting myself lucky, but alas, no. My trouble came when I attempted to actually shape the tuiles, but let’s start at the beginning. Unlike many of the DB challenges there was quite an allowance for freedom and creativity. While strict adherence to the actual cookie recipe was expected, the field was wide open when it came to shaping and pairing. For some reason I had raspberries on the mind, I think it was due The Art and Soul of Baking and its drool-worthy picture of a raspberry soufflé. Instead of soufflé though I thought a nice mousse would be a good pairing for the sweet tuiles. For the savory I decided on a salmon mousse.

Now it took some time to discover the right recipes for the mousses. All the while I kept having this nagging feeling that the simplicity of this recipe was deceptive. I don’t claim any powers of clairvoyance but I did seem to have an “ides of march” foreboding about actually attempting this recipe. So much so that I kept putting it off.

Other small things came up, like finding ingredients, then constantly eating batches of raspberry mousse while waiting to find said ingredients. Sesame seeds for the savory tuiles were difficult to come by. I ended up finally finding them in the grocery store closest to my house because it was the last place I looked, go figure.

Another thing that preoccupied my mind in this challenge was the shaping. How the heck was I going to do it? With comments about how if bakers ever wanted to embark on a life of crime they could do so, since after shaping the tuiles their fingerprints had been burned off…..needless to say I was intimidated. Andreas from Delta Kitchen was kind enough to provide a link to a great post by a woman who actually cooked all the recipes in the French Laundry Cookbook at home. The post includes a video where Thomas Keller himself shows you how to shape cornets. The video would be more helpful if you actually have cornet molds, which I don’t. So I spent a lot of the month looking around the house for things that I could use to mold my tuiles.

The only things I found were an extremely large pastry tip that I bought to make the Cardinal Slice recipe from Baking with Julia, which I’ve just never gotten around to. You’ll never believe where I got this nice metal…pole I guess, that I used to create little rolled shapes….an old printer that I took apart about a year ago. Thankfully I kept the parts

Shaping these things was the trickiest thing to get the hang of. The savory tuiles were much easier to shape than the sweet. I think that was probably due to the extra butter. I do want to mention that all of the people on the DB boards are truly the salt-of-the-earth. Everyone was super helpful with ideas and info. For instance, Cupcake Muffin gave everyone a super resource in this post on making the same savory cornets we were attempting. Check it out for some great pics as well as instruction.

If you ever want to give these a try there are a few things to keep in mind during the shaping process. First, contrary to what some DBs have said, you can spread these too thin. I did, and had some trouble with them browning too quickly. The first thing I used as a template was made out of the cardboard from a gift box which was waaaay too thin. Using the cardboard from a standard USPS shipping box turned out to be the perfect thickness for me. I spread the batter just under the line of the cardboard.

Second, don’t bake them all the way through. Here’s why…

The only way you’d be able to properly shape a tuile that has really started to brown is by giving yourself second degree burns inside your oven. I baked the tuiles for maybe six minutes. Basically I was looking for only a hint of browning on the edges. Here’s a hint…

Third, keep your oven door open letting the tuiles stay exposed to the heat as much as possible. It doesn’t take much for these babies to cool down and once they have they’re practically set in stone. So don’t touch the tuiles until you are positive that you’re ready to shape. I know some DBs had success softening them up in the oven to reshape, but I didn’t. Check out inventive use of printer parts…

Once you’ve shaped the tuile you’ll need to put it back in the oven. You want them to get a bit more brown. I never could get a consistent all-over color with the sweet. I’m not sure why. If anyone has any ideas, I would love to hear them.

Again the savory were much easier to work with. The only trouble I had here was not with the tuiles but with the mousse. I didn’t end up making it. I had everything ready with some ingredients already mixed, opened up my smoked salmon and peeeehew! Bad salmon. TOTALLY sucked. I still have to return it to my store because there’s no reason for that to have been bad. So no salmon mousse for my savory tuiles…

Despite the blow with the salmon mousse that was not I gave some Philly cream cheese a go and this is what remain after about five minutes of munching…

Here’s the recipes:

Sweet tuiles:
Preparation time batter 10 minutes, waiting time 30 minutes, baking time: 5-10 minutes per batch

65 grams / ¼ cup / 2.3 ounces softened butter (not melted but soft)
60 grams / ½ cup / 2.1 ounces sifted confectioner’s sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar (7 grams or substitute with a dash of vanilla extract)
2 large egg whites (slightly whisked with a fork)
65 grams / 1/2 cup / 2.3 ounces sifted all purpose flour
1 table spoon cocoa powder/or food coloring of choice
Butter/spray to grease baking sheet

Oven: 180C / 350F

Using a hand whisk or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (low speed) and cream butter, sugar and vanilla to a paste. Keep stirring while you gradually add the egg whites. Continue to add the flour in small batches and stir to achieve a homogeneous and smooth batter/paste. Be careful to not overmix.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up. (This batter will keep in the fridge for up to a week, take it out 30 minutes before you plan to use it).

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease with either butter/spray and chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. This will help spread the batter more easily if using a stencil/cardboard template such as the butterfly. Press the stencil on the baking sheet and use an off sided spatula to spread batter. Leave some room in between your shapes. If you’d like to color your shapes a bit, mix a small part of the batter with the cocoa or food coloring and a few drops of warm water until evenly colored. Use this colored batter in a paper piping bag and proceed to pipe decorations on your cookies.

Bake in a preheated oven (180C/350F) for about 5-10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown (don’t forget to check my lengthy instructions about baking and shaping that I outlined previously in this post.) Immediately release from baking sheet and proceed to shape/bend the cookies in the desired shape. These cookies have to be shaped when still warm. I strongly recommend you start by baking them one at a time until you get the hang of it.

Raspberry Mousse:
Adapted from The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion

3 cups (one 12-ounce bag) unsweetened frozen raspberries
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons unflavored powdered gelatin (see note on this in instructions)
1/4 cup (2 ounces) cold water
1 cup (8 ounces) heavy cream
1 tablespoon confectioners sugar

Bring the frozen raspberries, sugar, and lemon juice to a simmer over medium heat. Remove from heat and press fruit through a fine strainer; discard the seeds and solids, reserving the purée. Set it aside to cool to room temperature. You should have at least 1 1/2 cups.

In a small heatproof bowl or measuring cup, combine the gelatin and cold water. One thing to note about the gelatin, this recipe actually came from another recipe for a cake where this was meant to be the filling. I found that using a full 1 1/2 teaspoons made the mousse a bit too tough, so I scaled it back each time I made it (which turned out to be a couple because I couldn’t stop eating it). I think that one teaspoon should suffice in making something that holds together, but not like actual jello. Unfortunately I didn’t realize this in my last batch of the mousse when I used less than a teaspoon which turned out to be too little gelatin to keep the mousse together, so go with a full teaspoon.

Let the mixture sit until all of the water has been absorbed (this only takes a minute or so). Whip the cream and confectioners sugar until soft peaks form; set it aside. Heat the gelatin-water mixture over low heat until it becomes a clear liquid. Stir this into the raspberry purée, then fold in the whipped cream. Refrigerate mousse for about 90 minutes, to let it set up.

Savory tuiles/cornets:
From Thomas Keller’s the French Laundry Cookbook

1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons (65 grams/2.1/4 ounces) all purpose flour
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt (= 2/3 teaspoon table salt)**
8 tablespoons (114 grams/4 ounces) unsalted butter, softened but still cool to the touch
2 large egg whites, cold
2 tablespoons black sesame seeds

In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, sugar and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk the softened butter until it is completely smooth and mayonnaise-like in texture. Using a stiff spatula or spoon, beat the egg whites into the dry ingredients until completely incorporated and smooth. Whisk in the softened butter by thirds, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary and whisking until the batter is creamy and without any lumps. Transfer the batter to a smaller container, as it will be easier to work with.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Make a 4-inch hollow circular stencil. Place Silpat on the counter (it is easier to work on the Silpat before it is put on the sheet pan). Place the stencil in one corner of the sheet and, holding the stencil flat against the Silpat, scoop some of the batter onto the back of an offset spatula and spread it in an even layer over the stencil. Then run the spatula over the entire stencil to remove any excess batter. After baking the first batch of cornets, you will be able to judge the correct thickness. You may need a little more or less batter to adjust the thickness of the cornets.

There should not be any holes in the batter. Lift the stencil and repeat the process to make as many rounds as you have molds or to fill the Silpat, leaving about 1 1/2 inches between the cornets. Sprinkle each cornet with a pinch of black sesame seeds.

Place the Silpat on a heavy baking sheet and bake for 4 to 6 minutes, or until the batter is set and you see it rippling from the heat. The cornets may have browned in some areas, but they will not be evenly browned at this point.

Open the oven door and place the baking sheet on the door.*** This will help keep the cornets warm as you roll them and prevent them from becoming too stiff to roll. Flip a cornet over on the sheet pan, sesame seed side down and place 4-1/2 inch cornet mold at the bottom of the round. If you are right-handed, you will want the pointed end on your left and the open end on your right. The tip of the mold should touch the lower left edge (at about 7 o’clock on a clock face) of the cornet.

Fold the bottom of the cornet and around the mold; it should remain on the sheet pan as you roll. Leave the cornet wrapped around the mold and continue to roll the cornets around molds; as you proceed, arrange the rolled cornets, seams side down, on the sheet pan so they lean against each other, to prevent from rolling.

When all the cornets are rolled, return them to the oven shelf, close the door, and bake for an additional 3 to 4 minutes to set the seams and color the cornets a golden brown. If the color is uneven, stand the cornets on end for a minute or so more, until the color is even. Remove the cornets from the oven and allow to cool just slightly, 30 seconds or so.
Gently remove the cornets from the molds and cool for several minutes on paper towels. Remove the Silpat from the baking sheet, wipe the excess butter from it, and allow it to cool down before spreading the next batch. Store the cornets for up to 2 days (for maximum flavor) in an airtight container.

I’m not including the salmon mousse recipe because I didn’t end up making it and can’t vouch that it’s a decent recipe.

After an insane amount of work, here’s some of what I ended up with….

I just recently made my favorite jam thumbprint cookie recipe and scarfed them down in record time, I’m ashamed to say. So, I was looking forward to trying my hand at Dorie’s recipe for these Buttery Jam Cookies selected by Heather of Randomosity and the Girl. How could you go wrong…butter = yum, jam = yum in my taste equation primer. And yet, I guess my palate isn’t that refined because I just didn’t care for these as written in the book.

I baked the first half of the dough according to Dorie, but after being somewhat disappointed by the flavor I decided to make some alterations with the second half of the dough.  

Dorie’s cookies lacked in jam flavor in my humble opinion. I’m not sure why, maybe due to some sort of brain damage that creates certain flavor expectations when I hear the word “jam”, but I was disappointed because I imagined some kind of magic cookie with swirls of jam creating a marbleized masterpiece of jam goodness. This cookie just didn’t have it. Not only that, but the ginger TOTALLY overpowered any other flavor for me. While I don’t mind the spice, I’m not exactly holding up pom-poms for ginger.

Now, before anyone jumps down my throat – this is just my personal tastes here. As I began this diatribe, maybe I don’t have the refined palate for this cookie. Not only that, I think there may be something wrong with my sinuses hence affecting how I taste things. For example, I ate my daily salad with my favorite dressing, loved it – and I mean LOVED it, exuding all the “mmm, mmm” noises while consuming, then the next day it tasted kind of blech and I was wondering if some evil little troll ran into my fridge and switched out my dressing on me. The moral of this story is – don’t always trust my tastebuds, or at least lately – they’re acting funky. Something to do with the weather…and sinuses….I think, but I digress.

Now I’m sure some of you out there may be interested in the changes I made in the second half of the dough. There was really only one change to be made with the finished dough – add more jam! So I made thumbprints filling the wells with red, glossy little puddles of raspberry jam. This aided the failing jam flavor creating a more tasty cookie in my humble, most likely handicapped opinion.

I’m sure if you’re a ginger freak these cookies will be right up your alley. However, in my case I’ll stick to my old jam thumbprint recipe. (Someday I’ll get around to doing a post on that.)

Last edited on January 24, 2009

Here we are again with another challenge from the Tuesdays With Dorie group. Sorry for not posting this on Tuesday, but I’ve been overcome by election mania and glued to the TV for the past two days.

As far as this weeks challenge goes, Grace from Piggy’s Cooking Journal’s pick of Rugelach was a real winner for me. I tried a couple of different fillings with one half of the dough in an effort to see what I liked. I did a combination of the apricot, nuts, (semi-sweet) chocolate and crasins since I couldn’t find currants. I did this version with cinnamon sugar and without. Then I took a lead from I♥cuppycakes! and tried Nutella, nuts and toffee bits. Lastly I did one with just nuts and chocolate. And the winner is…none of them – ha! Actually I found elements that I liked in all of them, but I discovered that what I really liked was apricot, nuts, and chocolate without crasins or cinnamon, so that’s what I made with the other half of my dough.

Also, I never used regular nuts. I had been looking through one of my old magazines filled with Christmas cookie recipes and came across a recipe for Sugared-Almond Truffle Triangles. I liked the idea of sugared nuts and cooked up some sugared pecans to use for the nut component. The unfortunate thing about these nuts is they are TOO GOOD and TOO EASY to make that I ended up gorging myself on some leftovers last night. If you’re the type of person who likes to get their sweet and salt fix at the same time, don’t make these because you’ll end up eating them 24-7. Nuts aside, Rugelach was a real treat and I really enjoyed every version I tried. 

For those of you who are as fascinated by history as I am, I decided to look into the history of Rugelach. While many may claim they know the definitive story of Rugelach, I think the true origins are probably as lost as those for the Madeleine. The one thing I feel fairly safe in saying for sure is that Rugelach originated somewhere in Eastern Europe. One story has Polish origins. According to another tale, Austrian bakers celebrated victory over the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1793 by creating diminutive crescent shaped pastries known as Kipferin. The crescent being a symbol of the Ottoman empire, enabled the jubilant Austrians to take a bite out of their attackers. One way or another from what I’ve discovered, it was the Ashkenazic Jews and their claiming of Rugelach for many Jewish holidays that has disseminated this tasty cookie to the world.

Having Ashkenazic origins, Rugelach translates as “little twists” in Yiddish although I have seen other reference it as “creeping vine”. Ashkenazic Jews originated from medieval Jewish communities in the Rhineland of western Germany. Starting in the tenth century many Ashkenazic Jews migrated to other German-speaking countries such as Hungary, Poland and Russia as well as other places in Eastern Europe. It was descendents of these same immigrants that migrated to the United States along with their recipes for Rugelach. Known as Kipfel, Kifli and Cheese Bagelach among others, the cultural influences of this varigated history are displayed in the wide array of recipes you may come across.

In Europe the dough was made with yeast, but American Jews later introduced a cream cheese based Rugelach dough. Rugelach dough is rolled around sweet fillings such as chocolate, raisins and nuts, or preserves. You’ll find revelers at many Jewish celebrations enjoying this sweet treat.

Here’s my addition to the annals of Rugelach:

For the dough:
4 ounces cold cream cheese, cut into 4 pieces
1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the filling:
2/3 cup apricot jam
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup chopped sugared pecans or other nut (see recipe below)
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

For the glaze:
1 large egg
1 teaspoon cold water
2 tablespoons sugar, preferably coarse sugar

To make the dough:
Let the cream cheese and butter rest on counter for 10 minutes. It should be softened but still cool.

Put the flour and salt in a food processor, scatter over the chunks of cream cheese and butter and pulse the machine for 6 to 10 minutes. Then process, scraping down the sides of the bowl often, just until the dough forms large curds. Do not work the dough too long that it forms a ball on the blade. For those of you without all that technology *sob*, you can use a pastry blender just as well.

Turn out the dough, divide into half, shape each into a disk, and wrap in plastic wrap then refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to a day. (Wrapped airtight, the dough can be frozen for up to 2 months.)

To make the filling:
Heat the jam in a saucepan over low heat, or microwave until it liquefies. Follow sugared nut recipe below.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats. (Silicone baking mats are great for rugelach.)

To shape the cookies:
Pull one packet of dough from the fridge. If it is too firm to roll easily, leave it on the counter for about 10 minutes or give it a few bashes with your rolling pin. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into an 11- to 12-inch circle. One thing I’ve found that really helps me roll out dough is to place it between a couple of sheets of plastic wrap. This makes sure you don’t end up adding too much flour. If you’re anything like me, rolling out dough can be the bane of your existence. Pastry dough especially starts to get too warm and the all important chunks of fat that create that light-as-air flakiness start to melt. If you run into this problem (as I did repeatedly) just pop the dough in the fridge for 5-10 minutes to chill it back up.

Dorie has you cutting the dough into wedges after you lay out the filling, but I did it before without any problems. Using a pizza wheel or a sharp knife, cut the dough into 16 wedges, or triangles. The easiest way to do this is to cut into quarters, then cut each quarter into 4 triangles.

Spoon (or brush) a thin gloss of jam over the dough, and sprinkle half of the sugar. Scatter half of the nuts and half of the chopped chocolate over the dough. Cover the filling with a piece of wax paper and gently press the filling into the dough, then remove the paper and save it for the next batch. (If you want to follow the book this is where Dorie had you cutting the dough into wedges.)

Starting at the base of each triangle, roll the dough up so that each triangle becomes a little crescent. Arrange the crescents on one baking sheet, making sure the points are tucked under the cookies, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. (The cookies can be covered and  refrigerated overnight or frozen for up to 2 months; don’t defrost before baking, just add a couple of minutes to the baking time.)

Getting ready to bake:
Position racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 350 degree F.

To glaze:
Stir the egg and water together. Brush a bit of the glaze over each Rugelach. Sprinkle the cookies with sugar.

To bake:
Bake the cookies for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point, until they are puffed and golden. Transfer the cookies to racks to cool to just warm or to room temperature.

Sugared Nuts:
1/2 cup chopped pecans (or nut of your choice)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon of unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Note: I’d probably make these while the dough is chilling in the fridge before you roll it out. And like I said, they’re a great snack just by themselves at any time.

Butter a sheet of foil and set aside. In a large skillet, combine pecans, sugar, butter and salt. Cook over medium heat without stirring until butter starts to melt. Stir mixture and spread evenly in skillet. Continue to cook, without stirring, about 5-8 minutes or until sugar starts to melt. Stir mixture until pecans are evenly toasted. Spread nuts on buttered foil, separating into small clusters. Cool. If the nuts stick together too much, or formed in too large clusters, cover them with another piece of foil and bash a little with a rolling pin.

Those of you looking for more Rugelach options check out this article.

Aren’t they pretty? Madeleines have to be one of, if not the prettiest cookies out there (although, that seems to be a topic of heated debate). So I’ve been bitten by the Madeleine bug. I have to tell you though, I think about 90% of my inclination to make dozens of them is just to use my new pan.

I mentioned in that I had come across a recipe for a lemon madeleine using brown butter. I got around to trying it out the other day and I managed to pull it off without dropping anything on the floor, but of course I still had some issues.  

I realize this may be repeating information from my other post, but I think this is important enough to note again just in case you don’t feel like reading another post. If you read the other post, or already know how to make brown butter move along to the next paragraph. The recipe says it takes about twenty minutes on medium heat to brown the butter. Now, I don’t know if they meant that it’s supposed to take that long if you just took it out of, let’s say…the freezer. Still, I have no idea how you could take twenty minutes to do this, but with my stove I would have a serious smoke issue if I had tried to go for the full twenty. For more detailed info as to the issues I had with this procedure please read my post on brown butter. But basically, I don’t think the temperature makes a huge difference as I’ve seen the gamut from different people. I discovered success with a medium low heat. DO NOT WALK AWAY from this thing. Swirl the pan nearly constantly, and if need be even stir it once in awhile. This process only took me about five minutes when I finally got it right the third time. If you already knew how to brown your butter kudos to you, and breath, breath…you’ve got to remember to breath while your laughing.

I plan on doing a separate post about the miraculous properties of Baker’s Joy, but briefly that’s what I used to prepare the pans instead of butter. I just have a better track record with Baker’s Joy.

Despite my Groundhog Day experience with browning the butter, the cookies came out pretty tasty. One thing I’d like some help with, after a couple of hours they turned a bit soggy. I stored them in an air tight container and they seemed to get worse as time went by. Any ideas on what I’m doing wrong? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

*Squee* Sorry, I was really excited to become part of this group. So this Tuesday was the Lenox Almond Biscotti. Truth be told, I’ve never been a big fan of biscotti. My mouth always felt like a bunch of shrapnel ripped through it after I ate one. I was pleasantly surprised with this recipe because these are crisp, but not so much so that they damage your mouth.

The recipe was one of the easiest that I’ve tried. The only thing that caused some confusion (and not just for me, others were perplexed as well) was the step when you “…this time standing them up like a marching band…” – this suggested to me that I had to figure out how to stand these things up vertically. I read through those posts on the Tuesdays With Dorie blog and discovered that you just flip the cookies upside down so the bottoms can get crispy.  

As I said before, I was surprised to find that I rather enjoyed them, especially with a dollop of whipped cream! One thing I will note and try to avoid in the future, it tastes crazy like cornmeal. I found the cornmeal taste really overpowered the almond. I want to figure out a way to make these again, but perhaps with a little less of that cornmeal flavor.

One last note to any of you who have been on the fence about joining this wonderful group – do it now! I promise you won’t regret it. I realize that saying this after just one week may be premature, but if you like a challenge and bake a bit outside of your box then Tuesdays With Dorie is a great group to join. I probably would have never tried this recipe, and I’m really glad that I did. Just a reminder to all of you who are thinking about joining – you only have until the end of October to join!

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.  

This recipe for the most part went off without a hitch, at least in the sense that they looked and tasted pretty good in the end. I, however, did run into some problems having nothing to do with the recipe (of course). Zesting oranges is not my forte as you can see. I need to start keeping a photoblog of all the stuff that ends up on the floor when I’m baking.

Here’s the recipe with my notes in italics:

Orange-Cardamom Madeleines

batter:
4 tablespoons of unsalted butter, plus more to grease pan
1 tablespoon of good-quality honey (Does good-quality even need to be said? Use good quality everything when you can afford it.)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour (I used bleached all-purpose flour since this is a more cake-like cookie)
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom (Unless you like lots of spice cut way down on this. I used only a 1/4 teaspoon for the half batch I did because I wasn’t sure if I really liked the cardamom that much. I’m Polish and our cuisine isn’t exactly known for setting your mouth on fire, metaphorically or otherwise. I think it was almost just the right amount. It really could have used a bit more. Just be aware of the strong taste.)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs

glaze:
3/4 cup confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
2 tablespoons strained fresh orange juice

Brush molds of a madeleine pan with butter. Make the batter: Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat, and stir in honey and vanilla. Let cool 10 minutes. I nearly ended up with my own browned butter. Well maybe not nearly. I actually used the same method for melting chocolate, using a metal mixing bowl and a small saucepan as a double boiler. I used this method because I was only melting two tablespoons and it just seemed wrong to use even the smallest saucepan I have to melt that small amount. I nearly had browned butter because I wanted to check my computer for measurement conversions on my computer upstairs and got distracted by MSN headlines. I guess it’s a good thing I used the double boiler method.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, cardamom, and salt in a small bowl. Stir together sugar and eggs in a bowl. Gently fold in flour mixture until combined. Add butter mixture, and fold until combined. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate 30 minutes. I don’t know what it is about me, but I always end up being late for a lot of things. I swear I’ll be late to my own funeral. In this case I didn’t get the batter out of the fridge until after an hour. Yes, it actually took that long for me to zest and juice an orange. It didn’t help that the first one turned out to be a bad orange, something I didn’t notice until the glaze was made and I was cutting up the rind to throw down the disposal. It also didn’t help that all the zest from the second orange I zested ended up on the floor. Thankfully the third time was the charm, but that whole exasperating process took me an hour including my frustration break in between the last two oranges.

Preheat oven to 325, with rack in center. Spoon batter into prepared pan, filling each mold halfway. Tap pan on work surface to eliminate air bubbles. Bake until cookies are puffed and edges are golden, 7 to 8 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack; let cool slightly. Unmold cookies onto rack, and let cool completely.

Make the glaze: Stir together sugar, orange zest and juice in a small bowl until glaze is smooth, thick, and opaque. Using a small pastry brush, coat ridged side of each cookie with glaze. Let set 15 minutes. Cookies can be stored in a single layer in an airtight container up to 3 days. The cookies pictured in the book have a slightly milky look from the glaze. You need to make sure you don’t use any more orange juice than the recipe calls for to get that milky look. My first glaze (from orange #2 but with zest from #3) didn’t produce any milkiness at all, but I ended up probably adding a teaspoon or so extra of juice just because I wanted to use it up. Foolish me. I should know better when it comes to baking to be precise, but this is how you remind yourself right? The second glaze (from orange #3 no zest) came out much better because I used the precise amount of juice. I did add maybe a half tablespoon more confectioners sugar for good measure and it came out better.

All-in-all this was quite a tasty cookie. Despite my orange troubles it was an enjoyable experience, plus I love the historical lore surrounding this delightful cookie.