Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Lemon and Brown Butter Madeleines

With one week until school begins I find myself lamenting how quickly my five weeks of vacation flew by and how little free time I actually had. I blame it on the constant cycle of work that made the days go by faster and faster as they became indistinguishable. Work, eat, sleep, repeat. Now I'm saddened that I, once again, did not get to doing all the fun things that I had planned and day dreamed about instead of being attentive during last semester's classes. But I can't deny that I am excited for school and clinicals to start, so one could say that the fun has just begun for me.

Now these madeleines were something I whipped up in the few hours in between waking up and heading to work at noon this morning. Just had to satisfy my baking fix. Now, I've made madeleines once before with great success. They're my father's favorite, he loves the ones baked up by the Sugar Bowl Bakery in San Francisco that are sold in Costco, so I wanted to see what he thought of these. I was delighted to hear from my sister the next day that they were devoured by the familyin one sitting. My one qualm about that batch of madeleines was that I slightly overfilled the pan, which ruined the ideal shell shape. So I noted that I would have to make them again properly in order to document them here.

However, this time around I used a different recipe from 101 Cookbooks. That looked promising and was deemed "fail-safe", but I couldn't help but notice the lack of baking powder and refrigeration in the recipe. Now, baking powder I know is not a MUST in all madeleine recipes, but in my previous research I came up on a lot of emphasis regarding refrigeration, sometimes anywhere from 2 to 4 hours. But I pressed on and followed the recipe regardless. Now maybe it was my use of a handmixer as opposed to a stand mixer, but when I pulled the first tray of madeleines from the oven I was discouraged to find that they had not developed that signature hump nor had they risen at all. The backs were sunk in and they stuck to the pan. So, crossing my fingers, I sprinkled a small amount of baking powder into the remaining batter, gave it a good fold and hoped for the best. I even stuck the filled madeleine pan into the freezer for a good ten minutes. To my relief they came out much better, not humpy, but nicely puffed up. Now, I want to say that it must have been something that I did wrong that caused the problem, because I'm sure that the recipe, which has given others so much success, can't be flawed. But I'll be sticking with my original madeleine recipe, which is what I'll be typing up here. For the other recipe, see here.

Madeleines (adapted from Baking From my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan)

2/3 Cup All-Purpose Flour
3/4 tsp Baking Powder
Pinch of salt
1/2 Cup Sugar
Grated zest of 1 Lemon
2 Large Eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
3/4 Stick (6 Tbsp) Unsalted Butter, melted and cooled

Confectioners' sugar, for dusting


Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Working in a mixer bowl, or in a large bowl, rub the sugar and lemon zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Add the eggs to the bowl. Working with the whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat the eggs and sugar together on medium-high speed until pale, thick and light, 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in the vanilla. With a rubber spatula, very gently fold in the dry ingredients, followed by the melted butter. Press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the batter and refrigerate it for at least 3 hours, or for up to 2 days. This long chill period will help the batter form the hump that is characteristic of madeleines. (For convenience, you can spoon the batter into the madeleine molds, cover and refrigerate, then bake the cookies directly from the fridge; see below for instructions on prepping the pans.)

Getting ready to bake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400˚F. Butter 12 full-size madeleine molds, or up to 36 mini madeleine molds, dust the insides with flour and tap out the excess. Or, if you have a nonstick pan (or pans), give it a light coating of vegetable cooking spray. If you have a silicone pan, no prep is needed. Place the pan(s) on a baking sheet.

Spoon the batter in the molds, filling each one almost to the top. Don't worry about spreading the batter evenly, the oven's heat will take care of that. Bake large madeleines for 11 to 13 minutes, and minis for 8 to 10 minutes, or until they are golden and the tops spring back when touched. Remove the pan(s) from the oven and release the madeleines from the molds by rapping the edge of the pan against the counter. Gently pry any recalcitrant madeleines from the pan using your fingers or a butter knife. Transfer the cookies to a rack to cool to just warm or to room temperature.

If you are making minis and have more batter, bake the next batch(es), making certain that you cool, then properly prepare the pan(s) before baking.

Just before serving, dust the madeleines with confectioners' sugar.

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Monday, January 11, 2010

Raspberry Pistachio Teacakes

The days are dwindling fast until school starts up again and my life gets lost in a whirlwind of classes, work, and clinicals. Free days are becoming a rare commodity and considering that I will be gone for half of the last week of my vacation (celebrating my 20th birthday in Disneyland with my sister and friend), I realize now that I have very few opportunities to bake at my leisure. That's why I woke up early this morning in order to take advantage of this and over my bowl of cereal I quickly began to rack my brain for a relatively simple recipe that utilized the ingredients I had on hand.

Then of course, I had to factor in my dying need to use the adorable baking cups I purchased from Daiso (a Japanese goods store) a few weeks ago. So then I finally settled on making teacakes, which--maybe due in part to their simplicity--I had never made before.

Meanwhile, while I love the versatility of my new camera, I'm still struggling to achieve that bright, sunny look--but there's not much that can be done about that when shooting on a foggy Bay Area day. Keeping that in mind, I am content with the results.

Here is the recipe, adapted from Tartelette.

[As you may have noticed, I am notorious for attempting to make the smallest possible portion of any recipe and so I divided the recipe in half, which yielded exactly three muffin-sized teacakes. ]



Raspberry Pistachio Teacakes Recipe:

Makes about a dozen

1 cup (120gr) pistachios, raw, divided
1/2 cup (110gr) dark brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
1 stick (113gr) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon (5gr) vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (205gr) cake flour
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon (4.6gr) baking powder
1 1/2 cups (185gr) fresh raspberries

Preheat the oven to 350F. Lightly spray or butter 10 to 12 muffin cups or tins.
Coarsely chop the pistachios and set aside.
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or with hand held beaters), whisk together the sugar and the eggs on medium speed, until thick, about 2-3 minutes. Lower the speed and with the machine running, add the butter, vanilla extract, cake flour, salt and baking powder. Increase the speed to medium and whisk until just incorporated. By hand, fold in the raspberries, being careful not to break them up too much and half of the reserved pistachios. Divide evenly between the muffin tins (or other small molds). Sprinkle the remaining half a cup of pistachios evenly over the cakes. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool on wire racks.

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