Madeleines au Chocolat

I love facebook. Yes, I spend entirely too much time looking at recipes, anecdotes, lessons and links when I should be working on more important things like figuring out how to use Pâte à Tartiner (cocoa hazelnut spread with olive oil) or writing a book about how I lost five pounds eating copious amounts of chocolate every day. But no, I fall into the rabbit hole several times a day to see what my facebook friends are up to.

Where else can you learn a new language by reading your favorite food posts? Where else does someone recognize your love of chocolate and send you a photo with beautiful dark chocolate leaning into a creamy, dreamy green smoothie?

So, in honor of Bastille Day, I’d like to pay tribute to Gregory Paq, a very special facebook friend who inspires me each day with his love of food and all things culinary.

Grégory Paq is the creator of Bienvenue à ma table, a social network that allows people to gather around a (virtual) table to create relationships and share culinary adventures. He generously shared with me, a beautiful recipe for Madeleines au Chocolat but I had some trouble converting that recipe so I’m going to post one from Epicurious and tell you that Gregory adds an apple to his batter and then places a small cube of chocolate caramel in each mold so you may want to experiment. That’s half the fun isn’t it?

Ingredients

Half cup (90g) unsweetened cocoa
Pinch salt
4 large eggs
1 cup (200g) vanilla sugar
12 tablespoons (6 ounces; 185g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Butter for buttering the madeleine tins

Directions

1. Sift together the flour, cocoa and the salt.

2. Place the eggs and the sugar in a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer and whisk until thick and lemon-colored. Fold in the flour, then melted butter.

3. Butter the madeleine pans, then spoon in the batter, filling each about three fourths full. Refrigerate the filled madeleine pans and the remaining batter for one hour.

4. Heat the oven to 425°F (220°C).

5. Bake the madeleines just until they are firm and puffed, about 7 minutes. Turn them immediately from the molds, wipe out the molds, let cool and continue baking the madeleines until all of the batter is used. The madeleines are best when eaten slightly warm or at room temperature the same day they are made.

And, just in case you’re like me and you love to read great tips before you embark on a new recipe. My friend Alejandra at Always Order Dessert has some great tips to share about the art of making madeleines. I think you’ll enjoy her blog as well.