TWD - Lemon Madeleines

"...presently my aunt would dip a little madeleine in the boiling infusion, whose taste of dead leaves or faded blossom she so relished, and hand me a piece when it was sufficiently soft."
Marcel Proust
‘Du cote de chez Swann’ (1913)

For Tuesday with Dorie this week, we baked a French classic - madeleines.  Madeleines are little sponge-like cakes baked in a shell shaped mould, with a hump on one side.  They are so small and delicate that you could inhale them.

The trick with madeleines is not to overfill the moulds when baking them, as otherwise you get strange ugly barnacles instead of little shells.

Dorie said that we'd only get 12 madeleines out of her batter, but I had plenty of batter left over, so I baked 12 little heart shapes as well:

 

 

I have not always been a fan of madeleines, but I really enjoyed these.  The madeleines were moist, tender and distinctly lemon-tangy, in contrast to some dry madeleines that I have tried.  I took the time to glaze them with lemon glaze, as Dorie suggested.

 

These deceptively simple looking cakes take quite a while to make - you make the batter, wait an hour, put the batter in the tins, wait an hour and finally you bake them.  It is quite a bit of fussing, so make sure you have plenty of time to do it.

 

To see what the other TWD bakers thought of these madeleines, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.