Foodie Friday - Madeleines

Madeleines are said to be scallop shaped – but they are more like an elongated cockle. They are little cakes that are very popular in France for afternoon tea.

Madeleines were the speciality of a town in Eastern France – Commercy

Madeleines have simple ingredients, butter, egg, sugar, flour and lemon zest.  You do need to have a special baking tray if you are going to get the traditional shape.

There are a number of theories as to the origin of the name – so pick the one that appeals

·         A servant, Madeleine, created them for a deposed Polish King seeking sanctuary in France

·         A girl of that name making scallop shaped snacks for pilgrims vising the shrine of St Jacques – the French for scallop is coquille st Jacques

·         Created by Talleyrand's chef (not very romantic)

Shrimp Spring Roll Wrapper Cups

I got the idea for this super snack from somewhere where wonton wrappers were used.  I didn't have any but did have leftover frozen spring roll wrappers.

Ingredients:

Gently thawed spring roll wrappers

Oil (neutral one)

Cup of thawed frozen cooked prawns (keep 12 whole and chop the rest)

A little finely chopped red onion

2-3 Cherry tomatoes, chopped

Squirt of mayonnaise ( or use cream cheese)

Lemon juice

Salt, pepper, cayenne pepper

Method:

Preheat the oven to 175C (350F)

Get all your ingredients ready

Oil your muffin tins and then put 2 spring roll wrappers in each – trying to get them to follow the contours of the tin.

Cook for 8 minutes in the oven

While they are cooking mix everything else up in the bowl – except for the 12 whole prawns.

Spoon the filling into the cases and pop the whole prawn on top – cook for another 5 minutes.

I did 12 and enough turned out to be pretty and some were just for eating if you know what I mean.  Next time I'd double the quantities and fill the wrappers right up.  I might also experiment with not precooking the wrappers – while there's a risk of them getting soggy they would keep a better shape.

Simple tasty food with ingredients already on hand.

Nigel Slater's Baked Brie/Camembert

Ok, this almost qualifies as real baking!  Not my forte.

Ingredients:

Puff pastry (bought already thin sheets)

Small wheel of brie/camembert (firm is better)

Egg

Spoonful of a fruit jam

Method:

Set your oven to a high temperature – around 220 C

Cut out rounds of pastry that are big enough to go round the cheese – make the tops a little bigger than the bottoms.

Put the pastry bottoms onto your baking paper and put the cheese on top and then put a spoonful of jam on top of the cheese.

Put the other round of pastry on top.  Wet the edges of the pastry just a little and push the pieces together as neatly as you can with a fork.  You do want a good seal.

Brush all over the top and sides with your beaten egg.  Cut 2 little slits in the top to let steam escape.

Bake in the hot oven for 15 to 20 minutes.  Take it out and let it sit for 11 minutes – this is really important – otherwise you'll have a burned mouth and won't really taste the cheese properly.

Both the brie and the camembert worked well.  We did get out the jam and use a little more while we were scoffing the cheese – it was really nice – but so rich that one cheese between the 2 of us would have been plenty.

Banana Muffins with Lemon Cream Cheese Icing

This rare baking experiment was almost a complete success.  It was brought on by bananas that were starting to get too old to eat raw.

I have discovered before that muffins are more doable than other forms of baking – ie more forgiving.

The muffins themselves turned out delicious as was the icing – but the icing never set which made them a bit messy to eat.  I suspect its failure to set was because I didn't put enough sugar in it – but I don't like things too sweet.

Ingredients

75g butter (melted)

250g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 pinch of salt

½ tsp cinnamon

A few gratings of nutmeg

115g caster sugar

1tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp honey

2 large very ripe bananas

2 eggs

125ml milk

Method

Heat your oven to round about 190C

Melt your butter and let it cool a bit

In your first bowl mash your banana with a fork.   Then add your beaten eggs, the vanilla essence, the melted butter and milk- ie all the wettish ingredients

In your second bowl add your sifted flour, bicarb and baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg and mix and then add your sugar and stir again.  Make a well in the middle of these dry ingredients and add the contents of your first bowl into the well.  Stir it very lightly not worrying about lumps.  If you over stir it the muffins won't turn out as light and fluffy.

I used little muffin papers so I didn't have to grease my muffin pan.  Pour your mixture into the muffin pan not overfilling each one.  This quantity made 12 good sized muffins.

Bake your 20 to 25 minutes.  Let the cooked muffins sit on a wire rack for about 5 minutes before turning them out.  And don't ice them until they are cool.

The icing

This is just to tell you what I did.  It was delicious but didn't set.  I'm not totally sure where I went wrong.

I just beat together by hand a small  tub of cream cheese, about half as much butter and 3 cups of icing sugar with a pinch of salt and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.

I should have sieved the icing sugar but didn't