January is the perfect time to bake. For Christmas, my daughter gave me a madeleine pan. I was excited to make them. Sadly, after two failed batches, I’ve given up, not forever, but for now.

If you know madeleines, you can tell from the photo that they aren’t right. I can hear the Chef’s critique now as he/she bangs the madeleine on the table and breaks it in half. Good, you got the hump, but they didn’t rise properly, too dense and too brown on the edges, turn the heat down. TRY AGAIN!

There are so many recipes out there, it was hard to choose one. For the first batch, I went with Martha Stewart’s recipe. As madeleines are tricky, I thought Martha’s recipe would be full proof. Maybe it is, but not for me, I got a fail!

I then tried “another” recipe. I don’t remember which one, I randomly chose one. Again, somewhat similar to this batch. This makes me think that “maybe” I’m not whipping the eggs/sugar enough. BUT I feel PROUD of myself for getting the hump. That’s a big deal with a madeleines. You have to have the hump!

If you haven’t tasted a madeleine. they are a nice cookie type cake. There is debate on what they are called. They are like individual cookies; however, the texture is clearly a cake.

So, stay tuned. I am determined to get them right. Maybe I’ll try again next week. It’s just painful in this tough economy (groceries so expensive) to waste ingredients, but baking takes practice.

Cheers to getting it right the NEXT time!