Madeleines with Lemon Curd for Recipe Friday

Last Saturday afternoon, right before his friend came over to hang out, my son said, “I need to make Epicurean Creamed Peas this weekend.”

“What for?” I asked.

“For French class,” he replied, “but I need three people to evaluate it. I guess I’ll have to be one of the three.”

Just to set the record straight, I had told him already that my husband and I wouldn’t be home for dinner on Sunday because we were going to a concert, so I’m not sure when he was planning to make these peas. On top of that, the instructions for the assignment said that he needed three evaluations from other people, plus his own evaluation.

So I suggested he make a French pastry instead and bring it to church on Sunday morning for the snacks that we put out for after church when people are visiting. That way he would have plenty of people to evaluate his cooking project. He agreed that was a good idea, and we found this Madeleines recipe on WordPress.

The Madeleines were a big hit a church! We didn’t bring a single one home, and several people told me they heard how good they were but didn’t get to the snack table in time. Plus, he got an A on the project for French class. I’ll bet the pictures of people from church eating them with a smile helped!

We did make a few slight modifications to Mary’s recipe linked above.

First, we don’t have a Madeleine pan, so he just used mini cupcake papers and lined them up on a small cookie sheet. The recipe made 26. Some of the Madeleine’s turned out a bit oddly shaped, but it didn’t affect the flavor one bit!

Second, it took about 16 to 18 minutes to bake these at 350° instead of 12, and they still didn’t get very brown on top, but he didn’t want to over-bake them.

Third, instead of just dusting them with powdered sugar, he spread lemon curd on top of each Madeleine after they were cool, and then the powdered sugar. The sugar soaked into the lemon curd so you couldn’t really see it, but I think the added sugar was a nice balance to the tart (British) lemon curd. (Don’t tell his French teacher!)

I knew he was going to have to bake these again, especially since I only got two. And lucky me, he made some more Tuesday night. I think the second batch was even better. Mmmmm!!