Sugar and Spice Madeleines

I made a chocolate tart today.

Well, I tried to make a chocolate tart today.

For some reason, my neighbourhood has been put on a water-rationing rotation for a month, which means two days with water, two days without water, then two days with water again and so on until the 31st of March. Not only does it mean that I can no longer take 73832746 showers a day when it's searingly hot, it also means I can't bake and my mom can't cook dinner. Or wash clothes or even fill up our water bottles with drinking water. 

Today is the second day that we do have water, so I took the opportunity to bake. I chose a light-ish chocolate tart because I have been consuming a ridiculous amount of fried foods and have been feeling a bit chunky lately. Why bake a chocolate tart when you feel chunky, I hear you ask. Because, well... I don't actually have an excuse. I tried distracting myself by baking a Swiss roll yesterday to scratch the baking itch and so I wouldn't stuff my face with it (I love making Swiss rolls but have enough restraint around them) but it just made the itch worse. I wanted cheesecake, which, come to think of it, isn't the best thing one can make when one wants to, erm, lighten up a little. Hence the lightened up chocolate tart, because it seemed like a reasonable compromise to my cheesecake cravings and expanding thighs. A side note on thighs - some people can put on fifteen pounds and look good or at least decently balanced out, meaning that the weight doesn't, you know, clump up in one place. As for me, be it five or ten or twenty pounds, it all goes to my thighs and face. Ugh. It's no fun not being able to pull on my jeans after a week of pigging out, or having my face become mysteriously rounder overnight after one sweet too many. Anyhoo, a light chocolate tart it would be. Is that even possible ? I'll get back to that later.

So I made the chocolate sable crust and rolled it out and fitted it into my cute little 7-inch springform tin (recent impulse buy) and put it into the oven. Then after I took it out and set it aside to cool, something went wrong somewhere and with a loud crash, the tin was on the floor and so was my crust, having fallen splat on the floor in a very cartoonish fashion. I stood there, stupefied, for a moment until my brain clicked and I gathered up the wreckage and threw it into the bin in a huff. At that point, I wanted to give up and march off to watch tv and sulk but then I decided to suck it up and make a cookie crust instead. And let me just say, there is something quite satisfiying about bashing the hell out of some digestives after ruining a perfectly good chocolate crust.

An hour later, the tart was safely transferred to the fridge, cookie crust and all. It needs a long chill in the icebox so I'll only be able to cut into it tomorrow. It does look good so far so my fingers are crossed. Which is why I am posting about madeleines today. Makes perfect sense.

I made these awhile ago, before the water rationing system began. I have been attempting to make madeleines for some time now but the results have been less than stellar because they were always too squishy or dry or spilled over the tin, but delicious nonetheless. It wasn't enough for me because I wanted them to have the characteristic hump that madeleines are supposed to have, although I'm quite charmed by the hump-less ones since they closely resemble some Chinese egg-cakes that my grampa used to give us (鸡蛋糕). Most recipes for madeleines called for chilling the batter for an hour/two hours/overnight before baking, or whipping the eggs silly before folding in the flour. This recipe that I used needed no chilling or arm-breaking whisk-work. Everything is just stirred together happily and some wonderful, magical, nutty smelling brown butter is mixed in. Bake, watch the humps grow (okay that sounds weird) and then eat with a cup of tea. 

Sugar and Spice Madeleines

Melted butter, for brushing the molds

55g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground mixed spice

1 egg

27g caster sugar

1 heaped tbsp brown sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

45g butter

1. Preheat the oven to 190C. Brush the indents in a 12 she'll Madeleine tin with some of the melted butter and put the tin in the fridge. Once the butter has set, brush them again and return them to the fridge. It might seem a little strange for you to do this but it beats having to butter then flour them - makes a huuuge mess.

2. Sieve the flour, baking powder, salt and spices into a bowl. In another bowl, beat the egg and both sugars along with the vanilla extract until well blended. Don't worry about having to incorporate a lot of air into the egg, just whisk is well until the sugars and extract is mixed in. Stir in the flour mixture and set this aside.

3. Put the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat to melt it. Continue heating until the melted butter turns a nutty, golden brown - it'll foam up first so just keep swirling the pan. Take it off the heat once it starts browning and smells like popcorn (no kidding about both the popcorn and taking-off-the-heat part, you don't want to burn the butter) and pour it in a thin stream into the batter, whisking all the while. It's easier if you get someone to help you pour while you whisk. The batter will be thick and resemble gooey caramel.

4. Scoop a spoonful of batter into each indentation in the mold - it should be about three quarters full. Bake the madeleines for 5 minutes, then reduce the heat to 170C and bake them for another 10 minutes, until they're plump and springy to the touch and lightly browned all over. 

5. Remove them from the oven and tip them into a cooling rack to cool. Dust them with icing sugar before serving, if you like. Apparently they're best eaten fresh, as in a few hours after they're made, but I've stored them in an airtight container for a day or two and they're still perfectly tasty. The spices mellow out after the first day too.

*Note: the tin I have has only five indentations so while the first batch was baking, I put the batter in the fridge. I washed the tin and rebuttered it before filling it again.