When I arrived home from the swim weekend, I found my acceptance email from the Tuesdays with Dorie bake-along blog and instructions for the first recipe. I got really lucky on this first one as it was for Madeleines and I just happen to be the proud holder of a Reserve Grand Champion honor and ribbons from the Hamilton County Fair for my Madeleines.
Yesterday I used the recipe from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From my home to yours cookbook (you can find the recipe on pages 166-168...a simple recipe, but covers three pages in the book with chit chat and a very large photo, etc.). Note: Since Dorie has the cookbook copyrighted, I will not post the actual recipes here on Tuesdays (part of the deal on the blog is that everyone has their own copy of this cookbook, so I figure to honor that, I won't post the recipe...others on the blog are doing so if you want to check it out, however).
I found her recipe similar, but maybe not quite equal to the one I have used before...it does produce a very delicious Madeleine with just a little amount of effort, so I would recommend this recipe for anyone wanting to try it. The girls at MNO last night had a sample and declared it "very good," and they are a great judge of things along this line.
While this recipe was not a big learning experience for me, I will share here my feelings on Madeleine pans as I definitely have strong feelings on those. 
When I was first making Madeleines, I purchased a Madeleine pan, or what I thought was one, and it was labeled as such. It is the rectangular one shown here with the round cups. (You can click on the photo to enlarge it.) It sorta kinda maybe has a somewhat perceptible shape of a shell, the traditional Madeleine shape. Don't buy this pan. Really. It does not imprint the shell shape and the little sponge cookies all just look like circles. I have only kept it because sometimes one just wants a little round shaped cookie and it works great for that.
The second pan I bought was the non-stick coated pan you see with the darker finish. Don't buy this pan. Really. It imprints okay, but the non-stick coating causes the outsides of the Madeleines to cook faster than the insides, therefore leaving the Madeleines a little tough by the time the inside cooks. You don't get that nice soft airy melt-in-your-mouth cookie when you cook it that long. I don't know why I still have this pan as I don't like using it...if you think you might want it, let me know, and you can have it...really, just say the word and it is yours. You might like it fine...me, not so much, but I am rather picky (shocker, right?) about these sorts of things.
The other two pans shown are my favorites and produce a very nice Madeleine with just that little tiny bit of crunchy edge around the outside that I love...the little crunchy edge with the soft middle is perfection in my book. The pan for making mini-Madeleines you need to watch carefully, so they don't over cook, as they are small and can easily get away from you if you aren't careful.
Dorie's book recommended cooking the large ones from 11-13 minutes and the small ones from 8-10 minutes. This is too long in my oven, so you might want to play around with the time when you cook yours...my large ones take about 10 minutes and my smaller ones take about 7 minutes to make them nice and soft. (Pretty much I take them out when they look set and I begin to smell them baking.) All baked goods continue to cook just a little more when they are cooling, so there is a trick to knowing when to take them out for the best result.
Remember to sprinkle the powdered sugar over the tops of the Madeleines after they are cooled or the powdered sugar will melt (unless you want it to melt, of course).
Next week's recipe is Pecan Honey Sticky Buns on pages 51-53 of the book if you want to bake along...you don't have to be a member of the baking blog to do so, you know! A link to the blog can be found at the left sidebar here at GKT. If you click on the baker's sites along the left side of the Tuesdays with Dorie blog, you can view their photos and thoughts...and some of them have posted the recipe as well. Now...about that non-stick pan...anyone? Anyone at all?
