FOOD RESOURCE COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SCIENCES, OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
MADELEINE
Excerpted and Adapted from Escoffier, A. and P.H. Gilbert. Edited by Charlotte Turgeon and Nina Froud. 1961. The World Authority. Larousse Gastronomique. The Encyclopedia of Food, Wine & Cookery.
is a small cake whose ingredients are flour, butter, eggs, and sugar.
A chronicler of the history of pastry-making says the great pastry-cook, Avice, when he was working for Prince Talleyrand, invented the madeleine. 'He had the idea of using tot-fait or quatre-quarts mixture for little cakes baked in an aspic mold. M. Boucher and Careme approved the idea. He gave the name of madeleines to these cakes. ' (Lacam, Memorial de la patisserie).
Other authorities, hwoever, hold that far from having been invented by Avice, these little cakes were known in France long before his time. They believe that they were first made at Commercy, and were brought into fashion about 1730, first at Versailles and then in Paris, by Stanislas Leczinski, father-in-law of Louis XV, who was very partial to them.
The recipe for Madeleines remained a secret for a very long time. It is said that it wsas sold for a very large sum to the pastry-makers of Commercy who made of thi great delicacy one of the finest gastronomic specialities of their town.
Simon, Andre L. 1952. A Concise Encyclopaedia of Gastronomy. Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York.
(Garniture pour grosses pieces). Artichoke bottoms, Soubise and white haricot beans en puree in tartlets.
Grimes, William. 2004. Eating Your Worlds. Oxford University Press.
is a small rich cake, typically baked in a shell-shaped mold and often decorated with coconut and jam.
- ORIGIN French, probably named after Madeleine Paulmier, 19th century French pastry cook.
