Company in my Kitchen

As kids grow older they'll increase the distance to the elderly nest. At least, my kids do. But during their little excursions they're still thinking of home.


While standing on one of the platforms of the Eiffeltower, a few lovely espresso cups caught the eye of our youngest and he thought of me.

Isn't that nice? Instead of buying a little souvenir for himself, he bought them for me. And now they've got their own place on my espresso machine and seem to be the perfect background for madeleines.

Madeleines don't need a lot of ingredients and effort but you've got to start an hour and a half before you actually want to start baking.

Madeleines
90 gr. butter of good quality
1 tbsp. clear honey
2 eggs
75 gr. fine sugar
90 gr. flour; Italian 00
dusting sugar

Melt the butter and leave it for cooling down. Just before you're going to make the batter, mix the butter and honey. Beat the eggs, sugar and a pinch of salt with the electric handmixer till the batter gets the thickness of mayonaise. This will take 5 minutes.

Sift the flour above the batter and spoon the flour very carefully through the batter. Add the butter-honey mixture and stir it thoroughly but carefully. Leave the batter in the fridge for a rest.

After an hour, you can take the batter out of the fridge and leave it for 30 minutes at roomtemperature. The batter has become thick and foamy.

Preheat the oven till 410 dgr. F.(210 dgr. C.). Butter the madeleine molds. Fill the molds with just one tbsp. of batter. Bake the madeleines 5 - 10 minutes. How long it exactly will take depends not only on your oven but on your molds as well. Silicon molds take longer than iron molds. Leave them on an iron rack for cooling down and dust with sugar.

(by the book How to eat by Nigella Lawson)