Finally, A Madeleine Connoiseur

I am about as timely as an elephant doing the jitterbug. As a fan of madeleines, I agree with everything Pim says here:

http://chezpim.typepad.com/blogs/2003/03/madeleines_madn.html

However, as a sometimes professional baker, some of the tasty techniques are better suited for home bakers. BUT - yeah for not using baking powder. In my humble opinion,

baking powder is

wrong wrong wrong

for madeleines.

I hope you can enjoy these as much as I did. Pim is world famous for enjoying the creation of -and the consuming of - good food.

Our madeleine formula is quite simple, but the technique can't quite be described as it is a tactile process:

8 large eggs

1.6 pounds sugar

1.5 pounds butter

scant one pound sifted cake flour

microplaned zest of at least three recently washed lemons - no wax for me!

That's it.

I just realized that I may have made a big mistake this afternoon - I hope the batch turns out well anyway. We use a portioner - like a small ice cream scoop - to make the madeleines even and we also have become accustomed to using silicone madeleine molds as we can't afford to lose production.