C'est ma Madeleine de Proust
Do you know Marcel Proust? If not, he is a well known French philosopher, and his book A La Recherche du Temps Perdu has an entire passage dedicated to Madeleines. In essences he links the Madeleines from his childhood to memories and the importance of time and the past. Since everyone in France has read Proust, no one can look, bake, or eat a Madeleine without thinking of him. In our case this is no different! Yet, we have done a slight twist on the original Madeleine. We combined olive oil, lemons, and rosemary in this pastry with the end result of a fluffy and zesty Madeleine. The rosemary is not too overpowering since we only used it through the flavored honey. The basic recipe is delicious, and the lemons could be switched out with another citrus and the rosemary replaced with another herb!
We hope you take a moment to read some Proust while you bake or eat your Madeleines, you may be brought back to a childhood memory!
Ingredients
Zest of 1 Lemon
4 Eggs
100 ml (3.4 fl oz) Extra Virgin Olive Oil
100g (1/2 cup) of Rosemary Honey (or floral honey would work well too!)
The juice of 1 lemon
1 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
175g (1 + 1/3 cup ) of Flour
1/3 Teaspoon of Salt
2 Teaspoons of Baking Powder (we used a bag of Alsa, a mixture of both baking powder and baking soda that is available in France.)
Recipe
Preheat oven to 375 F (175 C).
Mix the eggs with the honey in a blender (or mixer).
Add olive oil and lemon juice to the eggs and honey mixture.
Then add flour, vanilla extract, salt, lemon zest, and baking powder (or Alsa mix). Mix until combined.
Let the batter sit in the fridge for about 15 minutes.
Remove from the fridge and mix batter one more time.
Oil and flour your Madeleine baking sheet. Add the batter.
Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
Let cool, and enjoy with some tea!
