A Perfect Rainy Day

I LOVE rainy days! They make me want to stay home in my jammies, drinking tea and curled up with a good book. Or, in todays case, baking and sewing... tea is a given here. So I turned on some good music (I'm loving Ray LaMontagne) and got busy in the kitchen doing one of my very favorite things. Baking!


Last weekend, I finally got a chance to use my new Madeleine pan. I got it a couple weeks ago, but with all the craziness of the last few weeks, I haven't had the chance to use it. I thought Madeleines were going to be these difficult, temperamental things, but they weren't at all! They were amazing. I had really only ever had the ones from Starbucks, but let me tell you... once you've had homemade Madeleines, you'll never go back.

They were so good that I made another batch today because
I ate them all
everyone loved them so much! The recipe I used came with the pan, so I didn't even bother looking up recipes and reading all the reviews and, like i said, they turned out great! Here's the recipe I used:

Madeleines:

Ingredients:

• 2/3 c. flour
• 1/4 t. baking powder
• 1/2 c. butter, melted and cooled
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 t. vanilla extract
• 1 c. powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Spray Madeleine pan with Pam (I used the cooking spray with flour in it)

Sift together flour and baking powder in a small bowl and set aside. In a separate mixing bowl, beat eggs and extract on high speed for 5 min. Gradually beat in powdered sugar. Beat another 5 min or until thick.

Gently fold in flour mixture, then melted butter. Mix until smooth. Spoon the mixture into pan, filling about 3/4 full. (I used a measuring teaspoon, but I've been told these work great) Bake approximately 8 min. or until edges are light brown. Cool in the pan for 1-2 min. Loosen cookies with a knife then invert pan onto a cooling rack.

Optional:

Dust tops with powdered sugar

To make Orange Madeleines, substitute orange extract for the vanilla and add 1/2 t. orange zest.

I probably could have filled them just a little more, but I'm still working out exactly how much I need before they overflow.

Now I can sit down with that cuppa tea and enjoy the fruits of my labor!

I hope that you enjoy these little treats too!