Paris in July Meets Weekend Cooking

Hartini, "Madeleines" July 17, 2008 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution.

Happy Sunday!  What a strange week, but so nice at the same time.  I'm working on a professional development course online, as well as teaching a class, so I often feel like I spend way too much time online.  As I mentioned earlier this week in my "The W's of Reading: Required Reading," that has taken me away from some of my own reading.  I'll get back there though.  I always do.

In the meantime, I've been reading a couple of books set in France, I've watched a couple of French films, and I finally tried out my new Madeleine pan.  I've wanted to make these cute little desserts for awhile now.  I know they are supposed to be a cookie, but they have a bit more of a cake consistency and texture.  My first introduction to Madeleines wasn't from my trip to France (I wish), but from the show Extra Virgin on the Cooking Channel.  It stars Debi Mazar and her adorable husband Gabriele Corcos.  In one episode they whipped these little beauties up and I was sold!  The real struggle was the pan.  I looked here in my area and I found a couple of different types--small and medium molds.  I finally settled on the smaller ones and purchased one little pan.  Using the Extra Virgin recipe they provided for Madeleines (see link), I made a batch today. 

I'm kind of kicking myself that I didn't go ahead and take a picture of them, but I was embarrassed by their turn out and want to try again.  Because I only had one pan, I overfilled the molds.  As a result, they puffed up as they cooked and many of them cooked together along the back.  Now, that didn't affect the taste, just the look.  I also noted that if I left them in a little longer than the recipe called for, they had a really nice, buttery flavor to the lightly browned edges. 

Here's my take away:

• 1st attempts sometimes aren't perfect (imagine that).
• Don't overfill the molds!
• Maybe use a piping bag to load the molds so you don't spill in between the cookies--the look is essential to these beauties.
• Be prepared to share!  They taste best right out of the oven, so I think these are a treat I'll be making when I have more people around who want to snatch them up right out of the oven.
• Take a picture! Regardless of whether they're messy or not doesn't matter.  Right?  It's a journey, not a destination.  

Well, this was a fun experiment.  I'd like to try it again and hope to dig up a few more recipes that I can try out.  For now, I'm pretty happy about my first try!

This post was done in participation with two great challenges I'm joining in on.  Stop by these sites to see some more great recipes and posts for Paris in July and Weekend Cooking!

Paris in July is a challenge being hosted by Tamara at Thyme for Tea and Karen at Bookbath.  See their sites for more information and great posts about all thing French.  They have posts up about books, food, music, culture, etc. 

Weekend Cooking is a great, weekly post run by Beth Fish Reads.  There are some really great food-related posts there.  Stop by to check out other great posts from this weekend.