Ethnic Cookies - French Madeleines

I have been away from my blog for a month, still recovering from a recent surgery. I am back on the blog now, and none too soon as it is "officially" Holiday Season. This week and next time I am finishing up the cookie section with Ethnic Cookies. Hopefully I have given you, throughout the months of the cookie section, enough ideas and recipes to get started making those holiday cookies.

Madeleines are a traditional French cookie. Actually, it is a cake-like cookie, created in a special Madeleine mold pan. The pan can be purchased in gourmet cooking shops such as Williams Sonoma. Being French myself, I grew up enjoying the lemony sweet cookies. However, the cookies were relatively unknown in this country until recently. Now I see them everywhere including grocery stores and coffee shop stands, typically packaged in small quantities.

I used to bake and bring in my desserts to the Transportation Department of Toys R Us, where I used to work as a "second job". At times I would cater my pies and cookies there as well. One particular time my co-worker and friend, Diane, asked me to bake her some Madeleines and she would pay me for them, asking me how much they would be. I had no idea what to charge at the time. The next day as I was leaving a Panera's coffee shop I was thinking about just how much I should charge for the Madeleines. "Falling from the sky" (the wind was blowing hard as it is apt to do in the Chicago land suburbs) and landing right at my feet was a Five Dollar bill. I decided to charge $5.0o for the madeleines, thinking it a sign. All this was before stores started carrying madeleines. By the way - the price on those store bought madeleines - $5.00! Guess I got it right.

The following recipe won me Blue Ribbons for the Ethnic Cookie division at a country fair, out of numerous entries, two years in a row (I didn't enter them after that, choosing to enter other types for variety's sake).

A few tips: For best results, try to purchase the standard size madeleine pan, instead of the miniature ones, and try to have it all metal (not Teflon coated). When mixing in the butter, there will be a lot of butter; just keep stirring until all the butter is incorporated. There is so much butter (which makes them so "yummy") that I have dubbed them Cholesterol Sticks! Coat the madeleine pan with butter, then flour, shaking off the excess flour.

Dori's French Madeleines

Ingredients:
2 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup sifted flour
3/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp. grated lemon peel
confectioner's sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and slight flour madeleine pans.
2. In top of double boiler, over not, not boiling, water beat eggs and granulated sugar with wire whisk while the mixture heats to lukewarm, - about 2 minutes. (Note: Water at bottom of the double boiler should not touch the base of pan above it.)
3. Set the top of the double boiler in cold water. Beat egg mixture about 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy.
4. With wire whisk, or a rubber spatula, gently fold in flour until well combined. Stir in cooled butter and lemon peel just until blended.
5. Pour into prepared pans, using 1 tbs. batter for each mold.
6. Bake 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden. Col 1 minute, then remove from pans with a small rubber spatula. Cool completely on wire racks.
7. Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar.

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen.

Next Week: Ethnic Cookies, Italian Biscotti