12460 Madeleines from Dax Makes About 18 3-inch Cakes or 24 2-inch Cakes Wed Aug 06 01:08:02 -0700 2008 Fri Feb 06 23:22:33 -0800 2009 Licensed http://www.chow.com/recipes/12460 Sat, 07 Feb 2009 07:22:33 GMT These soft, spongy, buttery madeleines are not the same as the madeleines de commercy, which one finds elsewhere, or the génoise type that appear in so many cookbooks, or, for that matter, the dunking type described so vividly and nostalgically by Marcel Proust. These lovely Southwest-style madeleines are more like little cakes, in the traditional shape (like a shell on one side, with an adorable hump on the other), flavored with lemon zest or orange-flower water. These are exquisite served with sorbets, homemade jams, and fruit compotes, or simply eaten without any accompaniment at all.

The patron saint of the Landais town of Mont-de-Marsan is Sainte-Madeleine, and in the neighboring town of Dax, madeleines have been famous for many years. Both towns hold madeleine bake-offs, and recipes vary widely. At Michel Guérard's Eugénie-les-Bains establishment, the madeleines served for breakfast are actually closer to slices of orange-flavored chiffon cake.

I learned this recipe from a young male baker who gave me the recipe in “egg weights”—the old way of setting culinary proportions. “Egg weights” are determined by weighing an egg, then weighing out the flour, sugar, and butter using the weight of the egg as a constant. If you visualize an old-fashioned fulcrum-type balance scale, the method makes more sense.

Begin 1 day in advance.

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  • A day in advance, combine the eggs, salt, and sugar in a mixing bowl. Whisk until thick and light in color, about 2 minutes.
  • Mix together the all-purpose and cake flours with the baking powder. Sift them twice. Gradually stir the dry ingredients into the egg mixture. Do not overbeat. Add the clarified butter, the cream, the orange-flower water, and the vanilla; stir gently until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate the batter overnight.
  • The following day, preheat the oven to 425°F. Using a pastry brush, coat the ridged hollows of a madeleine pan with the softened butter. (It is not necessary to dust with flour.) Use a teaspoon and a small spatula to barely fill each hollow about two-thirds full with batter. Tap the mold on the table to allow the batter to settle.
  • Bake for 5 minutes. Reduced the oven temperature to 325°F and bake for 7 to 10 minutes longer, until the madeleines are pale golden and just turning brown around the edges.
  • Use the tip of a knife at the base of each madeleine to turn them out onto wire racks to cool slightly. Serve warm and freshly baked with fruit compotes, sorbets, and custards. Leftover madeleines may be stored in an airtight tin and reheated gently before serving.
  • The batter must be made a day in advance so that the proteins in the flour can relax, and the madeleines will be very tender when baked.
  • You can bake a batch of fresh madeleines each day (storing the unused batter in the refrigerator); or cook them in batches if you have only one mold with 6, 8, or 12 shapes.
  • Madeleine pans should never be scrubbed with harsh abrasives. Scratched pans cause madeleines to bake up very pale on the ridged sides.
    • ]]>     http://www.chow.com Paula Wolfert 50 Main 2 large eggs

    ]]>     Pinch of salt

    ]]>     5 tablespoons superfine sugar

    ]]>     1 teaspoon vanilla extract

    ]]>     5½ tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour

    ]]>     5½ tablespoons cake flour

    ]]>     1 teaspoon baking powder

    ]]>     5 tablespoons clarified butter or Plugra, melted and cooled

    ]]>     2 tablespoons heavy cream

    ]]>     1½ teaspoons orange-flower water

    ]]>     1 tablespoon softened unsalted butter

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