Madeleines Pt. 1

In this case, not me but Proust's cookie - those little shell-shaped dealies they're selling at Starbucks. Now, I'm not knocking Starbucks, but the madeleines they sell bear little resemblance (beyond their shape) to actual madeleines. Actual madeleines are not dry and eggy and oily. Actual madeleines are tender and spongy and vanilla-y with an undertone of butter. They are, quite honestly, dangerous and compulsively eatable - if done right. If done wrong, they're pretty whatever.

I have had good madeleines twice in my life, and both times I think I moaned (a little embarrassing, but there you go). Once was at a bakery in North Beach, which specializes in traditional European cookies and desserts, and the other was in New Orleans, at a bakery that specializes in traditional French cookies and desserts. If you sense a theme here, it's because there's a theme here. All other madeleines have paled in comparison to those traditional madeleines. Wow, my mouth is literally watering.

Anyway, the point is that I would love to be able to have mouth-watering madeleines without going to Europe or New Orleans or even into North Beach, as much as I love North Beach. So I'm giving myself a little project: either find a recipe that makes awesome perfect madeleines, or figure one out based on the recipes you don't like.

I've made two batches so far. Both had disappointed, especially because they came from two of my favorite recipe sources - Cook's Illustrated and Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess. The Cook's Illustrated madeleines were almond madeleines that swapped out some of the flour for almond meal. The result was a gritty, dry, tough cookie that I actually tossed out.

The Nigella madeleines were even more disappointing. They sat like lumps in the madeleine pan and didn't even spread. Even worse, they tasted like eggy styrofoam - not was I was hoping for. So it's back to the drawing board. I have two more recipes lined up, so we'll see. In the plus column, I'm starting to figure out what makes the cookies work and what doesn't, so it's is educational at least. There are definitely worse things than baking experimentation, although I still hope I find the recipe that justifies Proust's famous recollection.