Honey Madeleines

Guess who got a madeleine pan for Christmas! I'm too legit to quit, so I thought I would re-post this recipe for you. If you don't have a fancy pan, just use a cupcake pan. They will taste just as good...

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Madeleines from a cupcake pan.

I tried my first madeleine while working at a coffee shop in college. They looked sorta plain, but once I took a bite and the buttery, vanilla cake-iness melted in my mouth, I was a convert. There is something about the slightly dense fluffiness of the crumb that I love. Friends at another cafe made me try madeleines topped with whipped cream, which I highly recommend--if you don't mind an approximately 1,000 calorie snack.


I don't make a habit of eating madeleines all the time, mind you. But, ever since I saw a recipe for them in Martha Stewart's Cookies cookbook, I've been itching to make them. Of course, you need a special madeleine pan to make madeleines, so I've been eying those madeleine molds enviously every time I enter a cooking store fancy enough to carry them. It just seemed a little beyond my budget to fork out major dough for something that would be used on such a limited basis. Still, I couldn't help day dreaming a bit when I came across one.

Recently, I cut out a madeleine recipe from Bon Appetit that called for lavender honey. I don't have fancy honey and I don't have a fancy pan, but I decided to make them anyway. I figured a cupcake pan was similar enough that it just might work...

And, lo and behold--they turned out just fine, minus the pretty fluting and scalloped shape that typically defines a madeleine. But, you know what, they taste damn good regardless. Now, where's the whipped cream...

Honey Madeleines

~Print Recipe~

Authentic madeleine shape. They taste the same, though...

• 9 tablespoons (1 stick plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter)
• 4 large egg whites, room temperature
• 1 1/3 cups powdered sugar
• 6 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup almond flour or almond meal
• 1 tablespoon honey

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter each mold or the cupcake pan and dust with flour, tapping out the excess. 
2. Melt 9 tablespoons butter in a medium (light colored) skillet or a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook until butter turns golden brown, stirring often. (It's harder to see the color of the butter in a dark pan.) Set browned butter aside.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites, sugar, all purpose flour and almond flour in a medium bowl until smooth. 
4. Place honey in a small, microwave safe bowl and heat until just warm, 5-10 seconds. Beat honey into batter. Beat in browned butter.
5. Spoon two tablespoons of batter into each mold. Bake until the tops are just dry and a tester comes out clean, about 14-16 minutes. Cool 5 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Tap madeleines out of mold onto the rack and cool slightly. Serve warm.

Yield: 12 madeleines

Pork Loin with Honey Mustard Glaze

The closest we have to a picture of the pork loin! (Thanks for modeling it for us, John.)

We grilled this pork loin last weekend for Alexis' bachelorette party weekend, and it came together beautifully, considering Andy and I didn't have a specific plan for the loin. Luckily Alexis brought a generous jar of her homemade mustard, which reminded me of an article I read a month or so ago in Bon Appetit magazine about homemade mustards, and how they are delicious with pork. Because we assembled everything on the fly, I don't have exact measurements, so use your best judgement.

What's in it

one pork loin (size depends on how many people you are feeding)

equal parts: homemade mustard, honey, olive oil

salt to taste

homemade mustard for serving

How it's made

Whisk together enough glaze (mustard/honey/olive oil/salt) to cover your pork loin, which is probably about 1/4 C per pound. You'll want the glaze to be thick enough to spread over the roast without running off, so please adjust as necessary. Place the loin on a pan or plate, and brush on the glaze, covering the entire surface evenly. Let marinade 30 minutes.

Heat up your grill (BBQ), and clean it as necessary. Using high heat, sear the pork loin on all sides, in order to keep the juices in. Then turn the heat to low/medium low and cook for about 30-60 minutes, depending on size, turning every so often for even cooking. You can use a thermometer to check temperature to decide when it is done cooking, or use the jiggle test if you have experience BBQing. Jiggle test: With your tongs, poke at the loin, and if it gives only slightly, or doesn't jiggle a bunch, it is probably done. If it jiggles quite a bit, then it needs more time. When you poke the loin, it should feel like the part of your palm below the thumb.

When done grilling, remove the loin from heat and let it rest for 10-15 minutes. This will allow the loin to keep cooking a bit, and the juices will have time to reabsorb back into the meat fibers, so they don't run out when you slice it.

Slice the loin in 1/2" slices, and serve with homemade mustard on the side.

Recommended side dishes: Broccoli Salad, Baked Beans, Cornbread

Masa Cornbread

All of the contributors to this blog love cornbread. (Check out both the Amber and Kate versions.) Now it's my turn. It's cornbread. It's masa. It's a match made in heaven: masa cornbread. 

I can't begin to tell you how much I love masa. Pretty much any possible thing made of this corn dough wins my overwhelming approval. Fresh corn tortillas? Absolutely. Sopes, tamales? Sign me up. I will make my own one of these days.

In the meantime, though, now I have something else to make with my masa harina (flour made from corn). Cornbread! It's so genius, I wish that I had thought of it myself. It's just like regular cornbread, but with a tiny Mexican twist. It has all of the great characteristics of regular cornbread, but with that distinct and delicious masa flavor. (Imagine the sweet taste of very fresh handmade corn tortillas--not the kind you typically buy at the store in this country. I hope you are lucky enough to know what I mean!)

I have made this masa cornbread two different ways and I will likely tweak the recipe as I continue to make it. I wanted to share it with you, though, because I think it is pretty amazing just as it is now. I will let you know if I figure out an even better recipe. This cornbread would be great with chili, but it is so good on its own, I say just make up a batch just so you can snack on it whenever you want. I'm even thinking about all of the possible add-ins for the next time I make this corn bread: cheese, green chiles? Yes, please.

Masa Cornbread

~Print Recipe~

• 1 cup masa harina
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup honey
• 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup or 1/2 stick) butter, melted plus 1 tablespoon for skillet
• 3/4 cup frozen corn kernels, defrosted (or fresh if it's in season)

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Whisk dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
3. Whisk wet ingredients together in a medium bowl. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Stir to combine. 
4. Add corn kernels and stir to fully incorporate, but be careful not to over-mix.
5. Put empty cast iron skillet in the oven for a minute. (If a non-cast iron baking dish, skip this step.) Remove and use remaining 1 tablespoon (you can use less) of butter to grease the bottom and sides of the warmed pan. Pour batter evenly into skillet.
6. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the edges are browned and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pan or on a rack slightly before serving.

Chocolate Covered Honey Florentines

In Cuba, there is not much to eat. When I was studying there for a month, we had a weekly rotation of dinner menu items that repeated itself over and over. We also had eggs for breakfast every day, though we could chose a variety of egg preparations--omelet, scrambled, fried, hard cooked. (We also had a beautiful array of fresh tropical fruit, though, which helped.) 

For lunch, between classes, my friends and I would walk down the street to one of the recently legalized paladares, a restaurant (in this case take-out window) operated out of someone's house. The menu was very limited and every day I would order pollo asado, a huge piece of roasted chicken served with moros y cristianos, a savory mixture of white rice and black beans, and a "salad" of un-dressed shredded green cabbage. (All of this for criminally low price of less than a dollar's worth of Cuban pesos.) The food was very good, but very basic. Cuban food is not spicy and this dish was hardly spiced at all for that matter. (Fancy ingredients and fresh vegetables are hard to come by in Cuba--except at expensive tourist resorts---due to our stubborn embargo. Boo.)

Imagine my surprise then, when I first dined at Pambiche, a lively, vibrant and bountiful Cuban restaurant in Portland. They had my moros y cristianos, but everything else seemed much too elaborate and fancy. Of course it is delicious, but I hardly recognized the food given what I had eaten everyday in Cuba.

Regardless, the best thing about Pambiche is the dessert. When I am there I usually eat as little as possible for dinner and save my appetite for the good stuff. They serve some of the best cakes--and most inspired dessert flavor combinations--- I've ever eaten. That first evening,  I had the arroz con leche---rice pudding. One of my favorite aspects of the dessert was the edible bowl it was served in---my first encounter with a Florentine cookie--- that delicate, crunchy, lacy caramelized sugar goodness. I've been thinking about it ever since.

Chocolate Covered Honey Florentines

(adapted from Martha Stewart's Cookies)

~Print Recipe~

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar (I only had dark and it was fine)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons flour
• Pinch of coarse salt
• 4 oz good quality chocolate

1.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Melt Butter, brown sugar and honey in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Transfer to a small bowl. Stir in four and salt until smooth.
3. Working quickly, drop 1/2 teaspoons of batter onto lined baking sheets, spacing them about 3 inches apart. Bake cookies until they spread and turn golden brown,  about 6 minutes.
4. Let cool completely on baking sheets on wire cooling racks. Carefully remove cookies from sheets with your fingers.
5. Melt chocolate in a double boiler [or a bowl set over (not touching) a saucepan of simmering water], stirring often. Remove from heat as soon as chocolate is mostly melted, continue stirring until it is fully melted.
6. Dip Florentines in chocolate, make chocolate Florentine sandwiches, or use a knife to spread half of each Florentine with melted chocolate. 
7. Cool and serve.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies

Honey Madeleines

I tried my first madeleine while working at a coffee shop in college. They looked sorta plain, but once I took a bite and the buttery, vanilla cake-iness melted in my mouth, I was a convert. There is something about slightly dense fluffiness of the crumb that I love. Friends at another cafe made me try madeleines topped with whipped cream, which I highly recommend--if you don't mind an approximately 1,000 calorie snack.

I don't make a habit of eating madeleines all the time, mind you. But, ever since I saw a recipe for them in Martha Stewart's Cookies cookbook, I've been itching to make them. Of course, you need a special madeleine pan to make madeleines, so I've been eying those madeleine molds enviously every time I enter a cooking store fancy enough to carry them. It just seemed a little beyond my budget to fork out major dough for something that would be used on such a limited basis. Still, I couldn't help day dreaming a bit when I came across one.

Recently, I cut out a madeleine recipe from Bon Appetit that called for lavender honey. I don't have fancy honey and I don't have a fancy pan, but I decided to make them anyway. I figured a cupcake pan was similar enough that it just might work...

And, lo and behold--they turned out just fine, minus the pretty fluting and scalloped shape that typically defines a madeleine. But, you know what, they taste damn good regardless. Now, where's the whipped cream...

Honey Madeleines

~Print Recipe~

• 9 tablespoons (1 stick plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter)
• 4 large egg whites, room temperature
• 1 1/3 cups powdered sugar
• 6 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup almond flour or almond meal
• 1 tablespoon honey

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter each mold or the cupcake pan and dust with flour, tapping out the excess. 
2. Melt 9 tablespoons butter in a medium (light colored) skillet or a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook until butter turns golden brown, stirring often. (It's harder to see the color of the butter in a dark pan.) Set browned butter aside.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites, sugar, all purpose flour and almond flour in a medium bowl until smooth. 
4. Place honey in a small, microwave safe bowl and heat until just warm, 5-10 seconds. Beat honey into batter. Beat in browned butter.
5. Spoon two tablespoons of batter into each cupcake mold. Bake until the tops are just dry and a tester comes out clean, about 14-16 minutes. Cool 5 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Tap madeleines out of mold onto the rack and cool slightly. Serve warm.

Yield: 12 madeleines

White Rabbit Salad

This salad is much tastier than it sounds. It's perfect for summer, and I love it since it is a lettuce-less salad. It comes from Moosewood, but I am not sure if they are the originator or if it is known otherwise.  Mary Ann got me hooked on it, and it is a breeze to make.  

What's in it*
3 C cottage cheese

2 Tbl honey, to taste

1/4 C raisins, currants or cranberries (dried)

1/2 C toasted nuts - I like walnuts

1 Tbl poppy seeds

2 tart apples, diced small

Optional additions:

fresh peach or pear slices

seedless red or green grapes

orange sections

chunks of ripe melon - honeydew or cantaloupe

How it's made

Combine everything and chill.

*Please don't actually measure anything for this recipe - the measurements are only there as a recommendation.  It's silly to measure for a salad.

Honey Cornbread

I made this yesterday for Easter while BBQing with friends. It was so easy and really quite delicious - not too sweet, and very light and fluffy. Much better than the box of Jiffy I am used to. Thanks to Allrecipes.com for this one!

What's in it

1 C flour

1 C cornmeal

1/4 C sugar

1 Tbl baking powder

1 C heavy cream

1/4 C vegetable oil

1/4 C honey

2 eggs, lightly beaten

How it's made

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, and lightly grease a 9x9 baking pan or cast iron skillet.

In a mixing bowl, stir together the dry ingredients. Then make a well in the center of the ingredients and add the rest of the wet ingredients and stir to combine.

Bake 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out dry. Drizzle honey on top for extra sweetness.

Andrea asked about honey butter, and apparently it's easy to make. Just whisk together soft butter and honey. It is delicious on cornbread. I will try making it next time.