Lesson the First: never deliver a batch of cornbread baked in Madeleine pans to a Frenchman without a proper explanation; he will think you’ve gone mad.
Mira was just home from delivering the lovely lady Dahlia, and so couldn’t make our most recent gathering of The Book Club. I couldn’t get over to visit right away, so gathered some goodies together to send their way: grapefruit pound cake, ginger pound cake, and a few of these tasty little morsels.
Of course, in Joce’s, defense, one sees something that looks like a very golden Madeleine, one kinda sorta expects it to be a Madeleine…
Except, it’s not.
It’s a bit of corn bread goodness baked in, yes, Madeleine pans, which, when you think about it, is kindofa GENIUS move – all of those crinkly edges give you a crispity corn muffin vibe in every bite, with done of that crumbly center to deal with, so let us all give a hearty thanks to the nice folk at Southern Living for the basic recipe, and to da Google for providing me with a self-rising cornmeal mix recipe.
INGREDIENTS:
Self-Rising Cornmeal:
•3/4 cup cornmeal
•3 tbsp flour
•1 tbsp baking powder
•1/2 tsp salt
Madeleines:
•1 cup self-rising cornmeal
•1/4 cup flour
•2 tbsp sugar
•1 cup buttermilk
•1/4 cup butter, melted.
•1 large egg, lightly beaten
•1 tbsp Caribbean Calypso seasoning
(optional)
Heat your oven to 400°.
Whisk together the cornmeal mix, flour, and sugar in a bowl. Add the Caribbean Calypso seasoning, if you like.
Whizzz together the egg, buttermilk and melted butter, then whisk into the dry ingredients just until blended – when your whisk no longer has a huge gob of corn mush clinging to it.
Note: this recipe specifically calls for using shiny-brite Madeleine pans. If, like mine, yours are of the darker variety, wrap the bottoms of the pans with heavy-duty aluminum foil, shiny side facing out.
If using shiny-brite pans, lightly grease them before adding the batter.
Add batter to whichever pan you have 3/4 full and bake for about 18 minutes, until golden brown and nicely puffed.
These really are best served fresh and hot from the oven, but if needs be, you can let them cool and stash ’em in the freezer, then warm in a 350° oven for about five minutes for a fast treat.
I served mine with a bit of home made honey mustard and a new take on my jalapeño cream cheese schmear, which you can check out in Friday’s Parfait!
Oh, and once I explained to Joce that I meant to make cornbread in Madeleine pans, he was cool with it, tho’ I think the ginger pound cake was more to his liking…