mini-madeleines (with oomph)

After reading Bea’s latest madeleine post, two thoughts went through my head. One was: I really should start reading Marcel Proust’s A la Recherche du Temps perdu again. In our French lessons in high school, we read an excerpt that I really loved. The page-long sentences, endless thought associations, and of course the madeleines dunked in a delicate tisane. Notice though I said ‘start reading’ and not ‘read’. Have you seen the size of this book? Daunting, to say the very least. I must have been in a world-conquering mood the day I bought the book. Needless to say, I have not yet conquered it (the book that is, not the world – I might do that some other time). I started reading it at least five times now, but never get past the first few pages.

The other thought that went through my head (and quickly drowned out the first thought) was, of course, ‘yum, gotta get me some of that’. Somewhere in the back of the kitchen cupboard there was a spanking new mini-madeleine tin, which I had bought it ages ago but somehow hadn’t got around to using yet. And I kind of made a deal with myself not to buy any new bakeware until I used everything I have at least once, so this was a perfect occasion. Also in the cupboard: a jar of chestnut honey, bought for the sole purpose of madeleine making. The recipe I had in mind is from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course, one of my favourite recipe books – the chestnut honey gives them just that little bit of extra oomph.

I was just a tad nervous about the whole thing. After all, I had never made madeleines before, someone long ago told me they are incredibly difficult to make and then of course there’s that elusive bump. But I shouldn’t have worried. After three minutes in the oven, I sneaked a quick peek (my oven doesn’t have a glass door and is not very accurate with temperatures, so I was a bit concerned) and there were beautiful little bumps on all of them. And after five minutes in the oven, they were just perfect: slightly bronzed and just a tad crunchy on one side, beautifully pale gold on the other side. Yay. So there. I made madeleines. I MADE MADELEINES! For the first time in my life. And it worked! Of course they taste best straight from the oven – let them cool just a bit, flip them over in the tin and eat while standing at the kitchen counter. One or two tiny bites (depending on how big your mouth is) of lovely airy and oomphy fluffiness and they’re gone. I enjoyed them with a mug of coffee.

After the baking (and tasting, and then tasting some more), I dug out the camera to take some pictures. Now I’m not at all good at photography and I don’t know anything about all the technical stuff. Usually I take a few snaps, quickly get fed up with it and think ‘Ah, sod it, there will be something useful’. And that’s it. But not this time. I had taken some pictures and was about to put everything away, when S tiptoed into the kitchen and took over. S is a keen amateur photographer and a bit of a gourmet himself, but I never thought he’d be interested in combining the two. And yet there he was, snapping away, re-arranging things and even exclaiming ‘we need white mugs!’ (if you’re wondering why: the white mug in the picture has its ear turned to the left, because it has an image on the other side). I’m starting to think this whole food bloggy thing is contagious. Hmm, imagine. We are blog. You will be assimilated, resistance is futile…