Pumpkin Madeleines with Dark Chocolate and Sea Salt

Still hot. Still dry. Still a confusing pattern of crisp morning and blazing afternoons. We're adapting to this weather. It's hard to adapt when it's so unpredictable. A swaying and perching of temperature highs and lows that vary by twenty degrees within just a few hours.

I'm bitter. I'm antsy. I want it to be cold so I can savor the mornings a bit more than I do right now. The artificial chill of the air conditioner can only give us so much comfort. I want both warm coffee and the shivering hand that holds it. Give me this. Give me turtlenecks and rain boots. I will take it all right about now.

Is there a word for weather that has overextended its welcome? It's not an anachronism, but it feels kind of the same. It's jolting to be looking at Christmas trees made out of wood at a local craft fair when there are rivulets of sweat trickling down my side.

Our yard, our house, our land - they do not like the extended heat. The grass is dead in the patch we reserved for the dogs to play, and shaggy in the field. Overrun, the way I like it. A tamed kind of chaos, the way I like it. It's nearly completely razed in the chicken run, but they don't mind. They'll get to laying soon, I hope. 

But I'm optimistic. I want it to be winter, if we are forced to bypass Fall. But in the meantime, I'll bake up something beautiful. In the meantime, I'll kill off the chocolate that's been in the cabinet for a while. I'll use the last can of pumpkin I had sitting around. I'll keep busy, waiting for the daylight to get shorter and shorter and shorter.

Pumpkin Madeleines, with Dark Chocolate and Sea Salt

Recipe notes: This madeleine recipe is taken from my adaptation of Ruby Tandoh's Crumb.  These were the following changes I made: I used 6 TB butter instead of 1/2 cup (I did not brown, just melted), 3 TB pumpkin puree, and 1/2 TB orange zest, 1 TB molasses. They bake a little longer at 12-15 minutes. Dipped in 12 oz of melted dark chocolate and a sprinkle of sea salt.

Madeleines!

I know I've been baking more French desserts lately -- but can you blame me? There's just an inherent romance, for me, when I think of French desserts. Even the simplest ones (and, let's be honest, that's all I'm producing these days) hold unique, delicate shapes and flavors and are somehow so memorable at the same time.

For me, madeleines are the original macaron. A distinct shape, a subtle flavor and a joy to make. We ate the whole lot in 2 days (the dogs occasionally got a bite, too), and always with coffee or tea. Warm and subtle and enigmatic in its own right. I would love to digress about my love of France and the poeticism of these little cakes, but I'll save that for others who have done a much better job at it than me.

So I'll leave it there, take these petits cakes for what they are--an easy, delicious classic that everyone should make at least once. The recipe I provided for this post is directly from Ruby Tandoh's book Crumb (with the addition of vanilla), which I found to be a strong, consistent batter, having made these multiple times through this week.

Honey Madeleines

For this recipe, I used a regular-sized madeleine tin, but you are more than welcome to use a muffin tin! This recipe came from Tandoh's Crumb, with the directions modified slightly.

Ingredients:

1/2 c + 1 TB unsalted butter

3/4 c AP flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/3 c sugar

2 TB honey

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Brown butter in a light-bottomed sauce pan and remove from heat. Use 2 TB of that butter to grease your pans
2. Place pan in fridge to stay cool
3. In a mixing bowl, sift together flour and baking powder
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together sugar, honey, eggs, and vanilla vigorously until foamy
5. Add egg mix to flour and stir
6. Fold in remaining browned butter until a batter forms. Allow to rest in fridge for 20 minutes
7. Preheat oven to 400*F while you are wait
8. Fill each tin about 3/4 of the way up the madeleine groove and bake for 8-9 minutes
9. Remove, re-grease and refrigerate pan, and bake off remaining batter

Modification notes: If using a muffin tin, fill only 1/3 of the way up the side of the tin and bake for around 10-12 minutes.