madeleines

last weekend my uncle jim gave me a madeleine pan. the week before, the miminator gave me a miniture madeleine pan. there's something about me that just insists that you give me the baking tools you don't use anymore. it's how i've become the proud owner of lots and lots of neat things, like antique lab & bunny cake molds, a few extra muffin tins and a checkerboard cake kit.

j is fond of madeleines. "fond" might be a staggering understatement. j left for a new job in another city this morning. yesterday, i made 8 dozen 3" madeleines and two dozen minis. i filled a 2.5 gallon bag with the full-sized cakelettes (the minis require more discipline than i generally exercise) and this morning he drove away with it half full. fond. in order to make so damn many, i had to quadruple the recipe-- i think i need to buy another madeleine pan.

ingredients:

• 2 cups unsalted butter, melted
• 4 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 12 eggs
• 2 2/3 cups sugar
• 4 tsp vanilla

prep:

• melt the butter
• preheat to 375*

actual cooking:

• combine flour, baking powder & salt
• beat eggs & sugar at medium-high until tripled in volume (eh, 6-7 minutes)
• sift a 1/2 cup or so of the flour mix over the eggs and fold it in
• gently, slowly fold in the rest of the flour mix
• add about 1/4 cup of the egg/flour mix to the cooled melted butter & whisk
• gently fold the butter mixture into the rest of the batter
• chill for an hour
• grease your mold (i used baking spray)

• drop rounded tablespoons of batter into the mold (i piped mine in, as i do with anything that doesn't all go in one pan)
  

• bake for 11-12 minutes
• drop pan from a couple inches onto your counter to loosen madeleines
• cool un-scalloped side down on a rack
• present the little darlings elegantly on a tray or impressively in a giant zippy bag
  

best of luck, j.

(and thanks for taking care of him, uncles jim & frank!)

(and for the madeleine pan! i hope there were some left after he was alone in a car with them for 5 hours.)