Baking Recipes

Madeleines – Marcel Proust and his heavenly cookies

By Amy @ cookbookmaniac

Marcel Proust unintentionally immortalized madeleines in his novel Remembrance of Things Past. He vividly describes the moment in which he dips these sweet scalloped-shaped cakes into his tea and how it magically brought back warm memories of his childhood. She sent out for one of those short, plump little cakes called petites madeleines, which look as though they had been moulded in the fluted scallop of a pilgrim's shell. And soon, mechanically, weary after a dull day with the prospect of a depressing morrow, I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake. No sooner had the warm liquid, and the crumbs with it, touched my palate than a shudder ran through my whole body, and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary changes that were taking place…at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory… — Remembrance of Things Past, Volume 1: Swann's Way. Marcel Proust. Although they are often categorized under cookies, they are actually more like sponge cakes. Bite-sized wonders that Pizzaboy eyed from a distance and stuffed into his mouth, in one giant bite. Proust was not exaggerating. These madeleines were exceptionally comforting and sensational dipped in my cup tea. Recipe adapted from Baking by Dorie Greenspan Ingredients 2/3 cup of plain flour 3/4 teaspoon of baking powder 1/2 cup of sugar pinch of salt Grated zest of 1 lemon 2 large eggs, at room temperature 2 teaspoons…