Dessert; A Little Less Processed

My husband and I had been watching a TV show a couple of weeks back and they had mentioned Madeleines in the show. My husband turned to me and asked me what a madeleine was. I told I explained to him that they are a cake-like cookie, similar to a cupcake, but smaller in size and mentioned I used to make them. He immediately replied “Why haven’t you ever made them for me?” Lol  So explained my pan had been lost in my move down here. (UPS lost one of my boxes that my father shipped down here and we never did get it) Without much hesitation my husband decided he would order a new pan for me so I could make these.

I learned to make these MANY years ago. (more than I care to mention. lol) It may have been during my gourmet cooking course. The recipe kicking around for years. I originally found it in a now defunct magazine called Eating Well. (LOVED that magazine, they always had GREAT recipes that were converted to be healthier.)

Over the years I have thrown away the magazines, but I was smart enough at the time to cut out the pages with the recipes that I wanted to try, and put them in a binder. (picture of said recipe below!)

Now, recently…due to changing our diet to less processed food, I realized these Madeleines probably weren’t going to turn out like the light, fluffy, cake-type cookie I had remembered. But I thought I would give it a shot and see how they turned out. I used my Hard White Wheat flour instead of store-bought all-purpose white flour, I substituted coconut sugar for the regular white sugar, and used decaf instant coffee instead of normal instant coffee (simply because that is the only instant coffee I had in the cupboard) Other than these substitutions I followed the directions exactly. Once I got to a certain point in the recipe, I realized…I had the canola bottle out on the counter…and other than oiling the pan, the recipe directions had never mentioned where or when to put it in? At that point, I was already too far along, so I decided not to bother with it. (Now, I was REALLY expecting these not to turn out) I had, for some reason, in my mind remembered these being very finicky on how things were mixed and the order they were put together.

While things were coming along, it seemed, using coconut sugar things weren’t as fluffy when they were mixed. (yet another bad omen, these DEFINITELY weren’t going to be as good as I had remembered) But I continued on. Got the first pan in the oven, set the timer and started washing up what dishes I could while they were cooking.

When the timer went off, and I opened the oven, to do the good ol’ toothpick test, I was amazed and ridiculously excited to see how beautifully these had risen. They looked just how I had remembered them. I was really excited to get the rest in and cooked. Once the first batch cooled I HAD to try one and see how it tasted. It was PERFECT!! Just how I had remembered. (By the way, I usually skip adding the icing or powdered sugar to these…I think they’re pretty good plain, and it will also save you some calories) 😉

THIS was the moment when I realized…I could make almost ANYTHING with my fresh ground flour and not worry so much if it would rise or act the same as the store-bought white flour. I was beyond thrilled and amazed, I was GIDDY, that this worked and turned out perfectly fine!

Here are the ones I made, they don’t look QUITE as decadent as the ones in the recipe photo. But still yummy!

I guess, all those years ago when I made them I just THOUGHT these were intimidating when really, they aren’t. Give them a try! 😉