To Dorothy

To Dorothy; or as I knew her, Grandma. Neat, huh?

She loved Julia Child. So by extension, I love Julia Child too.

My grandma passed away recently and my Grandpa gave me her cookbook. I am so sad that she's gone, but at the very least, I can remember her with Julia Child madeleines and tea from some of her very best bone china English tea cups.


So here's to you, Dorothy. Thank you for singing at our wedding, thank you for always exaggerating my talents to extended family members and anyone else who would listen (no, I've never actually been contacted by the CIA to come work for them, I'm not a member of MENSA, I don't really write for the LA Times, and I don't actually wake up each morning and make home-made croissants for my husband), and thank you for never EVER missing a soccer game, birthday, holiday, bring-your-grandparents-to-school day, or big test. I couldn't have asked for a better Grandma.


Madeleines, or
little shell shaped tea cakes
Adapted from The Way to Cook, by Julia Child
makes 24

Ingredients
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten in a 2-cup measuring cup
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour, plus 1 Tbs for preparing molds
• 5 ounces (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces
• a pinch of salt
• the grated rind of half a lemon
• a few drops of freshly squeezed lemon juice
• a few drops of vanilla extract (this is what Julia says; I say, use a capful)
• powdered sugar for dusting

Special equipment: 2 madeleine pans

Preheat oven to 375 ̊ and set the racks in the upper and lower middle levels.

Measure 1/4 cup of the eggs into a bowl, then beat in the sugar and the cup of flour. When thorougly blended, let rest for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a 6-cup saucepan, bring it to a boil, and let it brown lightly. Place the 1 tablespoon of flour in a small bowl and blend in 1 1/2 tablespoons of the browned butter; set aside for preparing the madeleine pans.

Place the rest of the butter in a small bowl. Fit the small bowl into a larger bowl filled with ice. Stir the butter over the ice until cooled but still liquid; blend it and the last of the eggs into the batter along with the salt, lemon rind, juice, and vanilla.

Paint the madeleine cups with the reserved flour-butter mixture. Divide the batter into 24 lumps of a generous tablespoon each, and drop them into the madeleine cups.

Bake until the cakes are lightly brown around the edges, humped in the middle, and slightly shrunk in the cups, about 15 minutes. Unmold onto a rack.
When cool dust with powdered sugar.