When you are have a craving, at least in my mind, you should satisfy it, if not you’ll be thinking about more and more and more. Madeleines were on my mind all week, they go superb with tea and coffee. The best part they’re exceptionally simple to make and cute. This is a recipe from Julia Child’s book which really needs no changing and the only thing I did was introduce new flavors. I’ve been wanting to play with perfumes more and more this year and this heavenly mix is hard to pin down as one scent so I’m going to go with “scented Madeleines”. I used a metal mold that I found at a thrift store in North Carolina many years ago.
Book updates this week:
San Francisco: October 2 (which is also my book launch day) – I will be at Omnivore Books chatting with my good friend and mentor, John Birdsall who also wrote the foreword to my book.
October 4th: (Details coming soon) – Season book dinner at the amazing Camino Restaurant in Oakland. Save the date, you’ll get to taste food from the book cooked the Russell Moore.
Season was also just listed by the one and only, cookbook author Paula Forbes in her shortlist for Fall 2018! This is what she wrote “If this book is anything like Sharma’s column for the San Francisco Chronicle, we can expect plenty of great recipes for big, fresh flavor in relatively simple packages. Deviled eggs with tahini and za’atar! Caprese salad with tamarind dressing! Pair these with Sharma’s own dreamy, moody photography, and you’ve got a looker of a cookbook that you might (gasp!) actually use.”
Also if you love cookbooks, sign up for her newsletter, she always shares news on what’s happening!
“scented” les Madeleines de Commercy (From Julia Child’s Kitchen – First Edition, Julia Child)
makes 2 dozen
ingredients
2 large eggs, beaten in a 1-cup measure
2/3 cup fine baking sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour + 1 Tbsp for the molds
1 stick (4 oz) unsalted butter + 1 1/2 Tbsp for buttering the molds
zest of one orange
seeds from 4 green cardamom pods, ground
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
2 Tbsp pandan/kewra water ( I use the Dabur brand that I pick up from my Indian grocery store)
1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar to dust the cakes (optional)
NOTE: Bring all ingredients to room temperature before beginning. You can also prewarm them in an oven at 100F. The reason for doing this is so the butter doesn’t congeal if it hits anything cold which is very important.
Add the eggs, sugar and 1 cup of flour in a large mixing bow and beat with a wooden spoon until you get a stiff, heavy cream like consistency. Cover and let sit for 10 minutes.
In the meantime melt the ALL the butter over medium-high heat in a small saucepan and swirl slowly and carefully until all the solids start to turn brown. Remove from heat. Take out 1 1 /2 Tbsp and add that to a small bowl with the 1 Tbsp of flour. Mix and keep aside.
To the butter in the saucepan, add the orange and cardamom and let it sit for about 8 to 10 minutes until it cools but is still liquid.
After the batter has rested 10 minutes, add the salt, pandan water and the seasoned browned butter with all the solids in the saucepan. Mix with the wooden spoon until combined and smooth. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest for at least 1 hour or overnight in the refrigerator.
To bake the madeleines:
Preheat the oven to 375F.
Using a pastry brush, grease the molds with a very thin coating of the flour-butter mixture. If clumps stick to the bottom then thin it out with the brush. Fill a generous tablespoon of the rested batter in the center of each mold and avoid the temptation to flatten it out. You want the “hump” with these madeleines and this will help that. The batter will also spread and fill the molds as it melts. Bake for about 14 to 15 minutes. They will be slightly brown on the edges and will shrink away from the sides of the molds. Unmold onto a wire rack to cool and repeat with the remaining batter (assuming your pan holds a dozen cakes). Cool and wrap airtight. These can also be frozen. You can dust them with a little confectioner’s sugar before serving.
