Madeleines for Easter

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My mom and I must have once gone to a cooking demo when I was little that was about Easter brunch…I even want to say it may have been at a cooking school that used to be at South Coast Plaza. Ever since, and maybe even more than eggs, I’ve associated madeleines with Easter.

When we did our wedding registry, among all the usual pots and pan, spatulas, wine glasses, I’m sure a few people wondered, what does she want this funny little scalloped pan for? Madeleines.

So yes, it takes some specialized equipment and it’s pretty much a uni-tasker (a big no-no in Alton Brown’s book), but these buttery little babies are worth it.

This year, I used a Martha Stewart recipe from her Entertaining book as a base. When she says to beat the egg, sugar, salt mixture for about 8 minutes, she means it. It makes for a light, airy madeleine, unlike those packaged ones you pick up at Starbucks. Other recipes call for ground almonds in addition to the flour – some folks around my house aren’t such big fans of almonds or almond paste in their baked goods, so I went with the simple recipe.

The other key to a fabulous madeleine is good vanilla extract. We have a bottle from the Hawaiian Vanilla Company that I’ve had for — geez, maybe a year (really need to get on using it before it evaporates) — that adds a vanilla flavor that’s leaps and bounds above the Schilling stuff, or even the big bottle I have in my fridge from Costco. One teaspoon of lemon zest (added at the same time as the vanilla) brings an extra zing of Spring.