Madeleine (cake)

Themadeleine(French pronunciation:[mad.lɛn],English:/ˈmædleɪn/or/ˌmædlˈeɪn/) orpetite madeleine([pə.titmad.lɛn]) is a traditional smallcakefromCommercyandLiverdun, twocommunesof theLorraineregionin northeasternFrance.
Madeleines are very smallsponge cakeswith a distinctiveshell-like shape acquired from being baked in pans with shell-shaped depressions. Madeleine-style cookies are popular in a number of culinary traditions.
Agénoisesponge cake batter is used. The flavour is similar to, but somewhat lighter than, sponge cake. Traditional recipes include very finely groundnuts, usuallyalmonds. A variation useslemon zestfor a pronounced lemony taste.
British madeleines also use a génoise sponge cake batter but they are baked indariolemoulds. After cooking, these are coated in jam and desiccated coconut, and are usually topped with a glacé cherry.
Several legends are attached to the "invention" of the madeleines.They have tended to center on a female character named Madeleine who is said to have been in the service of an important character in the history of Lorraine – although there is no consensus over the last name of the cook nor the identity of the famous character. Some believe that the illustrious patron was 17th-century cardinal and rebelPaul de Gondi, who owned a castle inCommercy.Others think that the inventor was named Madeleine Paulmier, who is said to have been a cook in the 18th century forStanislaus I, duke of Lorraine and exiledKing of Poland. The story goes that, in 1755,Louis XV, son-in-law of the duke, charmed by the little cakes prepared by Madeleine Paulmier, named them after her, while his wife,Maria Leszczyńska, introduced them soon afterward to the court inVersailles.Much beloved by the royal family, they quickly conquered the rest of France.Yet other stories have linked the cake with the pilgrimage toCompostela, in Spain: a pilgrim named Madeleine is said to have brought the recipe from France to Compostela,or a cook named Madeleine is said to have offered little cakes in the shape of a shell to the pilgrims passing through Lorraine.
Other stories do not give the cake a Lorraine origin and lay its invention at the feet of pastry chefJean Avice, who worked in the kitchens ofPrince Talleyrand. Avice is said to have invented the Madeleine in the 19th century by baking little cakes in moulds normally reserved foraspic.,
The term madeleine, used to describe a small cake, seems to appear for the first time in France in the middle of the 18th century. In 1758, a French retainer ofLord Southwell, an Irish Jacobite refugee in France, was said to prepare "cakes à la Madeleine and other small desserts".
The appearance of the madeleine is indicative of the increasing use of metal molds in European baking in the 18th century (see alsoCanelés), but the commercial success of the madeleine dates back to the early years of the 19th century. Several mentions of the madeleine are made by culinary writers during the Napoleonic era, in particular in the recipe books ofAntonin Carêmeand by famous gastronomerGrimod de la Reynière.
In Commercy, the production at a large scale of madeleines is said to have begun in the 1760s.In addition to being sold at the rail station, thus accelerating their spread through the country,it is likely that the cakes were exported to Paris along with the marmalade fromBar-le-ducand the croquantes fromRheims. By the end of the 19th century, the madeleine is considered a staple of the diet of the French bourgeoisie.
InIn Search of Lost Time(also known asRemembrance of Things Past), authorMarcel Proustuses madeleines to contrastinvoluntary memorywith voluntary memory. The latter designates memories retrieved by "intelligence", that is, memories produced by putting conscious effort into remembering events, people, and places. Proust's narrator laments that such memories are inevitably partial, and do not bear the "essence" of the past. The most famous instance of involuntary memory by Proust is known as the "episode of the madeleine", yet there are at least half a dozen other examples inIn Search of Lost Time.