Traditional Madeleines - Tuesdays with Dorie

Monday, May 19, 2008

Traditional Madelines from Dorie Greenspan

Thanks to Smells Like Home, this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection is Traditional Madeleines on pages 166-168 of Dorie Greenspan's Baking from my Home to Yours.

I've made them before, but it is always nice to revisit a recipe. Next time, I want to try her Earl Grey madeleines.

Traditional Madelines from Dorie Greenspan

Traditional Madelines from Dorie Greenspan
You can see little flecks of vanilla bean! (if you look very, very closely...)

Traditional Madelines by Dorie Greenspan Traditional Madelines by Dorie Greenspan
I love Dorie Greenspan's technique of rubbing zest with sugar til moist. The sugar smells heavenly. (I included the second photo of my unmanicured fingers to show off my new camera. If you enlarge it, you can get a fingerprint image...the new macro lens is completely amazing!!)

Traditional Madelines from Dorie Greenspan Traditional Madelines from Dorie Greenspan
Seriously in love with Nielsen-Massey's Vanilla Bean PASTE. No, not just extract, but paste. It is filled with little vanilla bean goodness. Drizzle this over ice cream and you could literally die.

Traditional Madelines from Dorie Greenspan
I learned this technique from Cook's Illustrated: Make a slurry of flour and melted butter, and brush it onto a pan. I don't know it is their technique, but one of the thousand recipes I've tried says to freeze the pan after butter/flouring.

Traditional Madelines from Dorie Greenspan
Traditional Madelines from Dorie Greenspan
I didn't get my lovely hump that I'm constantly looking for...but I did get a little training-bra type hump.

Traditional Madelines from Dorie Greenspan

P.S. Although not baking related, I went to Disneyland this weekend (one of the hottest and most crowded days of the year!) and had a great time. We hit all the mountains...Splash, Space, Big Thunder and the Matterhorn. Anyway, I recently got the coolest pedometer through my work's wellness program. I've had a zillion other pedometers, but this one uploads data to your computer, graphs out your steps, and I'm sure does your calculus homework or something. It is a Virgin Healthmiles pedometer...although I doubt Richard Branson uses one. On Saturday, I had over 9,000 steps and went to use the facilities....and the automatic flusher (industrial strength at Disneyland!) startled me, I turned and in a Tinkerbell moment, the pedometer was sailing down the toilet. Darn it.
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27 comments:

kimberly salem said... [Reply to comment]

beautiful job, they look great (even with just a little hump!) i love the vanilla bean paste, the flecks just make it look more delicious somehow :)

Gretchen Noelle said... [Reply to comment]

Lovely job on these madeleines. Love the vanilla specks. Too bad about the pedometer.

Mumsy said... [Reply to comment]

WOW. They look perfect!!! I've read that same tip from Cooks' Illustrated, but I forgot all about it. Good job!!!

Lori said... [Reply to comment]

Training bra type hump..... ha ha ha. Cute.
You may not have gotten the coveted bump but you sure have some serious nice even browing. They look great!

Engineer Baker said... [Reply to comment]

"Training bra hump" - love it!

ostwestwind said... [Reply to comment]

No humps for me either with that recipe and I got more than 12 big ones! It's always a good idea to cool a buttered pan!

Ulrike from Küchenlatein

Jacque said... [Reply to comment]

Gorgeous pictures! congrats on the new camera.

Bumblebutton said... [Reply to comment]

They look great. Congrats on the camera. And beg for replacement pedometer--what an unfortunate outcome of a toilet flush!

CRS said... [Reply to comment]

LOL--training bra humps.

They look lovely and wow those photos are great. Me want macro lens!

Anonymous said... [Reply to comment]

They look so soft and delicious.

I giggled outloud about the pedometer. My mom's work recently have her one too. Weird.

Melissa said... [Reply to comment]

"training bra humps" - haha!

Heather B said... [Reply to comment]

they look so good! Great job!

Marie Rayner said... [Reply to comment]

Your madeleines look beautiful. I have vanilla paste as well and I love, love, LOVE the stuff!

mimi said... [Reply to comment]

your madeleines look so soft and cakey! and congrats on the new camera!

Anonymous said... [Reply to comment]

OH, not the pedometer down the potty! :D

I didn't know Massey sold vanilla paste. Must find. Must find.

Anonymous said... [Reply to comment]

Your Madelines look lovely and the little bits of vanilla are just wonderful!

Anonymous said... [Reply to comment]

Beautiful - they look so good I can almost taste them!

Christine said... [Reply to comment]

Absolutely lovely. Where did you get the vanilla paste?

Cheryl said... [Reply to comment]

Great job! I love the flecks!

PheMom said... [Reply to comment]

Mmm - I love the vanilla bean paste in there! I almost added it too, but since I keep not getting the recipe "quite" right, I wanted to wait til I've mastered it a bit better. Beautiful job!

Garrett said... [Reply to comment]

Hmmm, I've never heard of this vanilla bean paste. I'm going to have to go hunting for it now!

Linda said... [Reply to comment]

What a coincidence...on Sunday, I was at Downtown Disney for baby shower (of course it was outside in a patio area), and it was freakin' hot! I was commenting to my hubby that it must have been brutal at the park! Sorry about the pedometer...hope you weren't counting for 10k steps :(

Beautiful cookies!

Shari@Whisk: a food blog said... [Reply to comment]

I gotta find some of that vanilla bean paste! Sounds delicious!

CB said... [Reply to comment]

I am in love with your vanilla bean paste. Must buy some. NOW.
Clara @ I♥food4thought

Mari said... [Reply to comment]

You did a fabulous job, hump or no hump, my mouth is watering at the sight of your madeleines

Jaime said... [Reply to comment]

beautiful and golden!

LyB said... [Reply to comment]

Your madeleines look gorgeous with all those tiny vanilla bean flecks! I so have to find some of that vanilla bean paste. Also, I had to laugh at your pedometer story, I was not expecting that! :)

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