Marvelous Madeleines for Dessert

Marvelous Madeleines for Dessert

I was invited for lunch at my friend, Emily's home the other day.

When I walked into her kitchen, I saw a recipe and baking ingredients coming to 

room temperature on her kitchen island. Mmm looks like we'll be making 

our dessert today.  Last time I visited, I took my bread machines and

we made several dough related items.  

Cooking during our visits is becoming a fun tradition.

After lunch we started making our dessert.

We used Martha Stewart's recipe, but used almond extract instead of vanilla.

If you like lemon flavor, use lemon extract.

The other change we made, was that we didn't let the batter sit two hours.

We used it as soon as we were done mixing it.

http://www.marthastewart.com/856115/vanilla-madeleines

Picture of the recipe, too small to read, so use the link I provided.

All the ingredients.

Two Madeleine pans.

Pans that have been buttered & floured.
You can also spray them with a cooking spray or Baker's Joy .

Whipping up the batter to an almost meringue consistency.

Our first batch. We later found out, that even though
the recipe says to "mound",
 the amount in the pans was too much.  

They came out lightly browned and a bit too big.
We let them cool only for a minute of two before gently removing them
with a butter knife and putting them on cooling racks.

The six cookies from the top were the overfilled ones.
The bottom six were just right. We used a little less
than 1/4 cup of batter in a 1/4 measuring cup
 to fill the molds.

Cooled cookies were then lightly dusted with confectioner's sugar.

Makes 48 cookies when done with the correct amount
of batter in each mold.
If you don't plan to eat these with a few days,
they can be frozen  in small freezer bags.
Do not dust with confectioner's sugar on the
cookies you plan to freeze.

These cookies are light, fragrant, moist and as delicious as they look!

We enjoyed a few of them with a piping hot cup of coffee.


The pans below are the non stick ones that I have.  The ones used above are aluminum.
Both will work just fine.

Martha's recipe calls for a pastry bag. We used a 1/4 cup measureing cup.
If I knew we were baking these, I would have taken my batter pen.

Great For a Light Summer Lunch or Dinner; Hand Held Mini Quiches

For the past few weeks, when I open my fridge I see the long, red box containing two ready made pie crusts. Trying to think of what I can do with them, I remembered the Wilton Mini Pie Pan I had bought and had never used.

 If you don't have one of these pans, you could use a muffin tin.  Just remember to check the cooking time, because the well will be deeper in a muffin/cupcake tin and you may need a minute or two more in the oven. Test with a toothpick, if it comes out wet, keep cooking; if it comes out clean, it's done.

I was more in the mood for quiche than I was for pie, so I gathered up some ingredients that I thought would be good in a quiche and got busy!

Gadgets; Wilton Mini Pie Pan or cupcake tin; whisk, cheese grater or Presto Salad Shredder w/cheese grater attachment; kitchen potato peeler; microwave bacon cooker.  If you do a site search, all can be seen on previous posts or do an Amazon search from my site to bring up any of the products used and shown on my blog.

Flexible Recipe for Mini Quiches

Flexible, meaning you can substitute your personal preferences for meats, cheeses and veggies.

5 medium eggs & 2 Tbsp. water -  whisk until frothy; season with salt and pepper.

Add to eggs:

2 Tbsp. chopped chives

2 strips of cooked bacon - crumbled

2 Tbsp. sauteed onions - salt & peppered.

Pour into four uncooked pie shells. Top each with 2 Tbsp. grated cheese. If using parmesan, use a potato peeler and shave three or four good size pieces on the top.

Bake for 12 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven or until done.

If you are using a muffin/cupcake tin, this recipe will make approximately six mini quiches.

Note: Spray pans with Pam or other cooking spray to insure easy removal.

Wilton Mini Pie Pan from Michael's craft store.
You may find this where Wilton products are sold.

Ingredients for mini quiches.

Five inch copper canister lid was used to
cut out 4 circles from one pre-made pie crust.

Spray with Pam.
Two of the cut out crusts needed to be pieced together.

Four medium/mini quiches.
Two have shaved parmesan on the top,
and two have grated sharp cheddar.

Baked and ready to eat by hand or with a fork & knife.
Serve with soup or salad.