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Lemon and Lavender Madeleines
Savor the Ethereal Perfectness of a just-baked Madeleine
I felt very inspired this week to bake some delicious Lemon and Lavender Honey Madeleines. I hadn’t made madeleines since I left my last restaurant job over 8 years ago. My madeleine molds were still wrapped in the same plastic from the last day when my pastry chef handed them back to me.
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.
— Marcel Proust
I forgot the ethereal perfectness of a just-baked madeleine. The slightly warm madeleines with a crispy exterior and a cake-like interior bursting with the bright flavors of fresh lemon. I ate a few alone in the quiet stillness of my home kitchen. Only someone who truly loves food will bother to find that perfect single moment when something is at its absolute apex. Think about the sot-l’y-laisse (chicken oyster) pulled only a few moments after a chicken is removed from a wood-burning rotisserie when the salty, fatty skin is still crispy. Or maybe the fatty belly from a translucent spring run wild salmon grilled simply with nothing more than a modest sprinkling of flake salt and pepper.
