Wow, is it already Friday? This week has flown by!!!
As I promised in my previous post, here is a DELICIOUS recipe for Madeleine Cookies taken from Bon Appetit Magazine (January 2000 issue).
My first experience with Madeleine’s were the ones they sell at Starbuck’s. I fell in love with them, but I always just thought there was some special trick to making these buttery cookies. I don’t know if it was the special pan you must have to make them (which I came to find out you can easily purchase at your local kitchen store for about $15) or the delicate look and delicious taste, but for some reason I always thought these would be complicated cookies.
BUT, they’re NOT…instead they are totally on the opposite end of the complicated spectrum. They are easy! The ingredients are basic: eggs, sugar, vanilla, flour, lemon, salt, and butter. Practically everyone has those items in their cupboard. You don’t have to do anything complicated in the baking process either. The hardest thing is probably melting the butter and waiting for it to cool before mixing it in with the other ingredients. Like I said, not complicated. And, the best part, you ask?? They only take about 10 or so minutes to bake… so you can munch on the sweet goodness as soon as it pops out of the oven.
So, are you ready? Here’s the step by step process of, oh so yummy and delicious, Madeleine cookies..
Like I said, B-A-S-I-C ingredients,… eggs, flour, sugar, butter, vanilla, lemon, salt, and powdered sugar for dusting.
I just realized the eggs and powdered sugar are hiding. WHOOPS! The sugar and flour are resting on the egg carton and the powdered sugar is in the green canister. Whew….almost had a crisis.So, the only complicated parts? You’ll need to melt and slightly cool your butter before mixing the ingredients, you MUST have a madeleine pan, and you’ll need a lemon zester.Lets start with the butter-buttery melting part.
First, cut up and melt 10 tbsp. of unsalted butter.
I threw mine in a pyrex measuring cup,…
melted it in the microwave, and then let it sit while I began to prepare the rest of the ingredients.
While your butter is slightly cooling, pull out your Madeleine pan. This is what it looks like.
And, here’s an artsy picture I liked. You can’t really see the full size of the pan, but I liked this picture. Therefore, I am putting it up!
Butter your pan generously. Bon Appetit also recommended flouring the pan. I did this on the first batch of cookies, but later decided to not add the flour. My madeleine pan was already nonstick, so it was really not that necessary to flour it. Whatever you like, though,…Then, the mixing begins!!
Crack your two eggs into a large bowl…
Then pour in 2/3 cup of sugar.
Blend the eggs and sugar together. Like my new green blender? Can you tell I like the color green? I got it on sale at Williams and Sonoma with some Christmas gift cards. I like gift cards… they are wonderful.
Then comes the lime lemon zest. See the lime lemon zester in my hands? I got it from my husband, last year, in my stocking. If you didn’t get one in your stocking this year, you can buy one of them at Williams and Sonoma if you like,… maybe YOU have some leftover giftcards from Christmas (?) or, you can always get one at Bed, Bath, and Beyond… they do have the 20% coupons there. If you don’t have a coupon, contact me. I hoard them like crazy,… collect them like baseball cards,… and I probably have about 30 of them at home. Call me.
So,… back to the lemon zester. All you do is take the zesting side, push it against the lemon and drag. The zester will produce beautiful curls of lemon skin like this. Pretty!
Zest until you have 1/2 teaspoon of lemon grated peel.
Throw the lemon zest into the egg and sugar mixture, along with 1 tsp. of vanilla extract and a pinch of salt.
Then mix it all together.
Throw a cup of flour into the wet ingredients and mix together.
Make sure to not overmix. It should look something like this.
Remember the butter that is cooling? Now’s the time to add it!!
Smooth, buttery goodness.
After it is mixed, drop about a tablespoon of dough into each indentation.Bake the cookies for 10-17 minutes at 375 degrees (It only took my oven about 10 minutes).
After they come out of the oven, pop them out of the pan with a spatula .
They should look slightly brown around the edges when they are done.
Then take your powdered sugar and lightly dust each cookie.
Aren’t they beautiful?
I think Madeleine’s are such dainty and delicate looking cookies.
***Gourmet Madeleine Cookies (taken from January 2000 Bon Appetit Magazine)
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. grated lemon peel
1 pinch of salt
1 cup all purpose flour
10 tablespoons of melted and slightly cooled butter
powdered sugar for dusting
Preheat oven to 375°F
Generously butter and flour pan for large madeleines (about 3×1 1/4 inches).
I’ve been taking pictures of all of my artwork throughout my college career in the past few months.
This is one of my favorites. Ironically, it wasn’t done in an intense drawing or design class, but instead my Art for Elementary School Teachers class. I loved that class,…we made so many fun things and my Professor was one of the most influential teachers I have ever had. Even though I’m happy to be done with my education for now, I still wish I could go back and take that one class all over again…
This project was a Tapa Cloth. It was a long process, but that was all part of the fun!! I started out drawing just a section of the overall finished piece. In other words, cut the drawing into fourths and the one-fourth of it was what I began with. After I drew the fourth of the drawing, I then traced the exact design all the way around the rest of the paper. Then I outlined the drawing in permanent marker, crumbled the drawing into a ball with my bare hands (yes, that’s what I said!!), flattened it out with a hot iron, and painted it with watercolor. With all the crinkles in the paper, the watercolor absorbed in the cracks and crevices, giving it an aged look.
Voila! A Tapa Cloth!!
I was going through my photo library and stumbled upon pictures of these delectable cookies I made a while back. For my own record, I needed to make a post on these. Mainly, to remind myself that I must make them again soon!
I found that I had many lemons in the fridge one day so, I did was any baking girl would do; I looked up “lemon” in the index of my Everyday Food magazine, which had just arrived in my mailbox a few days prior. That’s what you do, right?! Like,..of course!! After looking in the index for a while, I came upon this recipe for Lemon Sugar Cookies. Yum!
**note: if you have not yet subscribed to Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food Magazine you should. It’s wonderful,…filled with many delicious recipes, that are both simple and easy to follow. I’m not as intense as this person, but I do love my magazine arriving in my mailbox every month.** **UPDATE: And, I must give all props to my cute little pregnant friend, who told me about Everyday Food. Without her, I would still be eating nasty meals and I would certainly have no clue as to what quality food is. (Is that good, Re? He he he)**
I thought I’d share the recipe with you,…these cookies are light and flaky. The creme in the center makes them water in your mouth. They go well with a very tall glass of milk and taste even better when they have chilled in the fridge for a few hours.
Lemon Sandwich Cookies (Issue 42)
Prep: 45 minutes Total Time: 2 ¼ hours; Makes 3 dozen
Ingredients
16 table spoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest (from 1 lemon)
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups all purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for rolling
2 table spoons granulated sugar, for sprinkling
Creamy lemon Filling (below)
Directions
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on high speed, beat butter, confectioners’ sugar, lemon zest, and salt, until combined. With mixer on low, add flour 9dough will still be stiff); finish mixing with a wooden spoon.
-Turn dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap, pat into a disk about ½ inch thick. Wrap, and chill until firm, about 1 hour (and up to 3 days).
-Unwrap dough; place on a lightly floured piece of parchment or waxed paper. With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll dough about 1/8 inch thick (if dough cracks, let it warm up slightly).
-Cut out cookies with a 1 ½-inch round cutter (re-roll scraps once, chilling of too soft). Place 1 inch apart on two baking sheets; sprinkle with granulated sugar. Bake until barely beginning to brown, 15 to 20 minutes; transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
-Form sandwiches: Place about 1 teaspoon Creamy Lemon Filling between two cookies, sugared sides facing out; squeeze gently.
Creamy Lemon Filling
4 ounces bar cream cheese, room temperature
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest 9from 1 lemon)
1 to 1 ½ cups confectioners’’ sugar
-In a small bowl, mix cream cheese and zest until smooth. Gradually add 1 cup confectioners’ sugar, missing until smooth. Mix in remaining sugar as necessary to create a firm but spreadable filling.
**taken from Everday Food, issue 42**
Yum! Enjoy,…happy lemon cookie baking!
I’ve been working, what feel like nonstop, on my brother and future sister-in-laws wedding invitations. And, I’ve been loving every minute of it (except when the computer refused to cooperate with me)!
It’s been so much fun and I’ve come up with about 10 different invitation designs. By the end of the week, I hope to have all the sample images up on my other site, Lydia’s Pen and Paper.
So here’s my recap of the last week and a half,…
paper and raffia
ribbon and bows
handwritten initials
pretty photographs of the bride and groom
and, lots of printing.
Heres a mini-sampling of some more shots:
I can’t wait to get my Pen and Paper site started up!!!!
