Series Two - part one: Madeleines

As the summer holidays end and it is back to the normal routine of work, school, homework, so starts up the continuation of the French culinary cooking challenges. At the end of last year I splashed out on a series of DVDs of Julia Child "The French Chef" - as well as "The way to cook". This is over 1000 minutes of viewing time! I am expecting these to not only be informative but delightfully entertaining, with Julia' typical bloopers and down to earth wit.




The three day long weekend to celebrate Waitangi day seemed a good time to get back into cooking. However my DVDs have not yet been unwrapped and although I had thought I would recommence cooking this week I haven't prepared myself in anyway. However I did have a back up plan. At a recent shopping expedition I managed to secure a Madeleine pan half price. However to my dismay Julia had not included a recipe in her repertoire. Not too worry, I had my French patisserie book - however it required honey (damn), lemons (damn) and ground almond (damn)... plan C - Madeleine pan had recipe included... all ingredients readily available (although I had to shake the last drop of vanilla essence out the bottle). They are relatively easy to make but the mixture does require some resting in the refrigerator before cooking.






Madeleines have been described as a little romantic French cake, and are unique with their delicate shell shape. They are moist due to the "beurre noisette" - butter melted and cooked until nut brown.

Family were busy preparing for outdoor activities and although not quite the romantic ambiance one would get from sitting in a café in Paris - I attempted to capture some sort of refinement by placing a few on a bone china plate which family could enjoy on the go... and the left overs ideal for the school lunches tomorrow.

In two straight lines...