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Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Classic French Madeleines

Madeleine is a traditional small cake from Commercy and Liverdun, two communes of the Lorraine region in northeastern France.
Madeleines are very small sponge cakes with a distinctive shell-like shape acquired from being baked in pans with shell-shaped depressions.


Photograph by Mark Jefferson



These small scalloped-shaped sponge cakes were immortalized by the french writer Marcel Proust  in his novel In Search of Lost Time
No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory – this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me it was me. ... Whence did it come? What did it mean? How could I seize and apprehend it? ... And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of Madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray (because on those mornings I did not go out before mass), when I went to say good morning to her in her bedroom, my aunt LĂ©onie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane. The sight of the little Madeleine had recalled nothing to my mind before I tasted it. And all from my cup of tea.
— Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time

Photograph by Mark Jefferson

You will love these small heavy cakes with a hump in the middle that were made famous by the bakers of Commercy .


Photograph by Mark Jefferson

Ingredients
9 oz granulated sugar
4 oz bread flour
4 oz cake flour
4 oz ground blanched almonds
6 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
Grated zest of 2 lemons
9 oz clarified butter plus extra for buttering the pans
2 tsp vanilla extract
Powdered sugar

Photograph by Mark Jefferson

Photograph by Mark Jefferson


Directions
- Butter and flour the molds. For a crispier crust, brush the pans with butter and then coat it with granulated sugar.
- Sift sugar, bread flour and cake flour together. Mix in ground almonds.
- Whip eggs and salt until foamy. Add the flour mixture in parts alternating with the butter. mix in lemon zest  and vanilla.
- Cover the batter and let it rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
- Now you can use a pastry bag to pipe the batter into the molds or you can use a spoon to drop about one tablespoon of batter into each mold. You don't need to spread the batter to fill the mold, the batter will spread on its own to fill the molds.
- Bake at 450°F for about 8 minutes. Unmold and sift powdered sugar over the tops.


Photograph by Mark Jefferson

Photograph by Mark Jefferson

Photograph by Mark Jefferson














Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Banana Coconut Pecan Bread

Banana Bread is a type of bread that is made with mashed fully ripe bananas. It is often a moist, sweet, cake-like quick bread.


Ingredients:


- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (3 to 4)
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon coconut extract
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 
- 1 teaspoon baking soda 
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 3/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut


Directions:

- Heat oven to 350°F and line a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan with parchment paper.
- Mix sugar and butter in large bowl. 
- Stir in eggs until well blended. 
- Add mashed bananas, buttermilk and coconut extract .Beat until smooth.
- Stir in flour, baking soda and salt.
-Finally stir in pecans and shredded coconut.
- Pour into prepared pan. 
- Bake about 1 1/4 hours, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
- Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack. Let it cool completely for about 1 1/2 hours.