osprey_archer | Happy Bastille Day!

My friends and I have a Bastille Day party every summer, because mid-July is just about the only time of the year everyone is home.

This year, we made madeleines.

Madeleines

2/3 cup sugar
4 eggs
rind of one lemon or one orange
3/4 cup + 3 Tbsp flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 lb (one stick) butter, melted.

Whip the eggs and the sugar together until your hand falls off at the wrist, or until they're ivory-colored and bubbly all the way through. Stir in the lemon rind. Fold in the flour and baking powder in three batches, then sprinkle the melted butter over the top and fold it in too - all as lightly as possible; you don't want to fold the air you so laboriously whipped into the batter right out again.

Chill the batter for half an hour. Preheat the over to 450 degrees F. Butter and flour the madeleine mold, and fill it 2/3 full of the chilled batter. (Mini-muffin pans will also work, although you'll have to bake them a bit longer). The madeleines cook for five minutes at 450, and then you dial the oven back to 400; I think you're supposed to take the madeleines out and wait for the oven to cool down, but I didn't and they turned out fine. Bake for 3-5 minutes more.

When they're done, the madeleines should be golden brown, and when you poke them the top should spring back into place. Take them out of the oven, let them cool for a couple minutes, then lever them out of the tin with a knife. If you used enough butter they should come out whole.

Madeleines are usually served ungarnished, or dusted with powdered sugar. I think it would be awfully tasty to drizzle them with melted chocolate, though. Or a lemon glaze. Sky's the limit, really.