July 14, Bastille Day, sent me off on a bit of a culinary spree. I wanted to make the girls something that went beyond my own tastes of the day as a child (doughboys with maple syrup with a dash of confectioners sugar) and start something new. I decided to make Madeleine’s.
Remember that Marcel Proust quote from “Remembrance of Things Past“?
“I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake. No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure invaded my senses.”
So I set off to find a suitable recipe, from an actual cookbook. No Pinterest posts for me! I hefted out my old copy of the Joy of Cooking and decided to add summer fruit like blueberries, a sprig of mint and a dollop of creamy french vanilla ice cream to the buttery tea cake.
This is what a Madeleine is supposed to look like
When you can’t find a Madeleine shell shaped pan anywhere around you or a tiny tartlet pan you settle for this outcome.
Then the day just wipes you out and you don’t explain the tradition at all, your kids eat all the blueberries for a snack and screw the mint leaves for an added effect because you just want them to eat the damn sugary treat fast before the dessert high impedes on their bedtime.
How the hell do food bloggers do it?!
The Fifth Element could care less about a revolution or mint leaves, fine food photography and blueberries.
Perhaps next year when they are all older I’ll break down and make doughboys and explain to H that yes, we Rhode Islanders, celebrate some different holidays.
After all that I had to make amends.
Introducing the PDP!
It’s part pineapple, part lime and all that foam is pure rum frothiness that melts in your mouth. So mix it up, avoid another culinary disaster and end the day on a happy note. We call it the PDP (Pineapple Drunk Punch) , but Giada the creator calls it the Aloha L.A. Cocktail, which just sounds geographically incorrect. I would also add more lime and while it won’t surpass my mojitos it does the job on a summer day.
*original madeleine image from foodsubs.com
