gluten-free honey-spice madeleines

All of Proust's remembrances began with one bite of a madeleines.

I have a confession. I still haven't read all of Proust's books. Try as I might, several times, I could never make it past the first 60 pages. Well, you're saying, most of us haven't. I know. But I was a literature major, an English teacher, an avid reader from the age of 2. I've read Ulysses 4 times. Surely I can slog my way through Proust?

"It's a translation problem," a friend of mine told me. This is someone I trust. However, with an energetic 2-year-old, more things to do than I can even write down on a list, and more cookies to bake for you? There's not much chance I'm going to brush up on my French enough to read it in the original. I'll have to let it go until I am old and have nothing to do but sit in the sun and read all afternoon.

Wow. I never imagined I'd want to be old. Still, it sounds pretty good.

(Also, I still haven't read Moby Dick. I'm going to need a lot of afternoons.)

Like Proust, I can dart from one topic to another without much warning. Unlike Proust, and his sentence cousin Faulkner, I am incapable of writing three-page sentences that somehow make sense if you shake your head and go back again to realize where he was going all that time.

In fact, right now, I'm feeling much more like William Carlos Williams than Proust.

I have eaten
these madeleines
that Dorie Greenspan
invented

and which
we made gluten-free
for now
and for breakfast.

Forgive me
for showing a picture
so sweet
that you cannot eat.


(Danny and I both believe these may be the best baked good we have ever eaten. Make these. Now.)

Would you like to win a copy of our cookbook? It's as much narrative as it is recipes. I promise no Proustian sentences.

Or perhaps you'd like to win a madeleines pan? You'll need one to make these.

Simply leave a comment about what you would do with your days if they were a bit slower? Besides eating madeleines, of course.







GLUTEN-FREE HONEY SPICE MADELEINES, adapted from Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours

105 grams gluten-free all-purpose flour mix
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/4 teaspoon guar gum
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
pinch kosher salt
pinch cracked black pepper
1/3 cup sugar (I like the superfine sugar here)
finely grated zest of 1/2 large orange
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 ounces (6 tablespoons or 3/4 US stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
powdered sugar for dusting the cookies

Combining the dry ingredients. Whisk together the flour, xathan gum, guar gum, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, salt, and pepper. Whisk them well to aerate the flour.

Combining the wet ingredients. In the bowl of a stand mixer, rub together the sugar and orange zest until you have a beautifully perfumed sugar. Using the whisk attachment, run the stand mixer on low. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat them with the sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy, and slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Add the honey and vanilla while the mixer is running on low speed. Turn off the mixer.

Making the batter. Gently, gently, fold in the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula and stir until they are just combined. Add in the melted butter and stir until combined.

Refrigerating the dough. At this point, you can either put the bowl in the refrigerator or prepare the madeleines pan and refrigerate it. We suggest you do this. So...

Butter the madeleines pan well, then tip a bit of sweet rice flour into the molds. Tap out the excess flour. Carefully spoon batter into each mold, until the batter is level with the top of the mold. Take care to not overfill them. (This is a problem for me. The worst that can happen if you go above the level of the mold is that you'll have a puffier madeleines than the photograph shows. Eh. More cookie for you.) Put a piece of plastic wrap over the surface of the madeleines. Refrigerate the madeleines pan for at least 3 hours or overnight.

Baking the madeleines. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, then take the madeleines pan out of the refrigerator. Remember to remove the plastic wrap! Bake the madeleines until they are light golden and puffy and the cookie gently springs back at the touch of your finger. Take them out of the oven. Tap the edge of the pan against your kitchen counter, gently. The madeleines should release at the touch of your finger. If not, use a butter knife to release them. (I love that Dorie used the word "recalcitrant" to describe the ones that wouldn't move.)

Transfer the madeleines to a rack and cool until they are barely warm to the touch.

Now, these are pure heaven when just out of the oven. However, they're still pretty darned good the next day too. If they make it that far....

Makes 1 dozen large madeleines.