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| Type | Cake |
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| Place of origin | France |
| Region or state | Commercy andLiverdun,Lorraine |
| Main ingredients | Flour,sugar,eggs,almonds or other nuts |
Themadeleine (English:/ˈmædəlɪn/ ⓘMAD-əl-in,/ˈmædəleɪn/MAD-əl-aynor/ˌmædəlˈeɪn/MAD-əl-AYN,[1]French:[madlɛn]ⓘ) is a traditional smallcake fromCommercy andLiverdun, twocommunes of theLorraineregion in northeasternFrance.
Madeleines are very smallsponge cakes with a distinctiveshell-like shape acquired from being baked in pans with shell-shaped depressions.
Agénoise sponge cake batter is used. The flavour is similar to, but somewhat lighter than, sponge cake. Traditional recipes include very finely groundnuts, usuallyalmonds. A variation useslemon zest for a pronounced lemony taste.
British madeleines also use a génoise sponge cake batter but they are baked indariole moulds. After cooking, these are coated in jam and desiccated coconut, and are usually topped with a glacé cherry.
Several legends are attached to the "invention" of the madeleines.[2] They have tended to center on a female character named Madeleine who is said to have been in the service of an important character in the history of Lorraine – although there is no consensus over the last name of the cook nor the identity of the famous character. Some believe that the illustrious patron was 17th-century cardinal and rebelPaul de Gondi, who owned a castle inCommercy.[3] Others think that the inventor was named Madeleine Paulmier, who is said to have been a cook in the 18th century forStanislaus I, duke of Lorraine and exiledKing of Poland. The story goes that, in 1755,Louis XV, son-in-law of the duke, charmed by the little cakes prepared by Madeleine Paulmier, named them after her, while his wife,Maria Leszczyńska, introduced them soon afterward to the court inVersailles.[4] Much beloved by the royal family, they quickly conquered the rest of France.[5] Yet other stories have linked the cake with the pilgrimage toCompostela, in Spain: a pilgrim named Madeleine is said to have brought the recipe from France to Compostela,[6] or a cook named Madeleine is said to have offered little cakes in the shape of a shell to the pilgrims passing through Lorraine.
Other stories do not give the cake a Lorraine origin and lay its invention at the feet of pastry chefJean Avice, who worked in the kitchens ofPrince Talleyrand. Avice is said to have invented the madeleine in the 19th century by baking little cakes in moulds normally reserved foraspic.[7]
The term madeleine, used to describe a small cake, seems to appear for the first time in France in the middle of the 18th century. In 1758, a French retainer ofLord Southwell, an Irish Jacobite refugee in France, was said to prepare "cakes à la Madeleine and other small desserts".[8]
Cakes à laMadeleine
On a pound of flour, you need a pound of butter, eight egg whites & yolks, three fourths of a pound of fine sugar, a half glass of water, a little grated lime, or preserved lemon rind minced very finely, orange blossompraliné; knead the whole together, & make little cakes, that you will serve iced with sugar.
Menon,Les soupers de la Cour ou L'art de travailler toutes sortes d'aliments, p.282 (1755).[9]
The appearance of the madeleine is indicative of the increasing use of metal moulds in European baking in the 18th century (see alsoCanelés), but the commercial success of the madeleine dates back to the early years of the 19th century. Several mentions of the madeleine are made by culinary writers during the Napoleonic era, in particular in the recipe books ofAntonin Carême and by famous gastronomerGrimod de la Reynière.
In Commercy, the production at a large scale of madeleines is said to have begun in the 1760s.[10] In addition to being sold at the rail station, thus accelerating their spread through the country,[4] it is likely that the cakes were exported to Paris along with the marmalade fromBar-le-duc and the croquantes fromRheims. By the end of the 19th century, the madeleine is considered a staple of the diet of the French bourgeoisie.
InIn Search of Lost Time (also known asRemembrance of Things Past), authorMarcel Proust uses madeleines to contrastinvoluntary memory with voluntary memory. The latter designates memories retrieved by "intelligence", that is, memories produced by putting conscious effort into remembering events, people, and places. Proust's narrator laments that such memories are inevitably partial, and do not bear the "essence" of the past. The most famous instance of involuntary memory by Proust is known as the "episode of the madeleine", yet there are at least half a dozen other examples inIn Search of Lost Time.[2]
No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory – this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me it was me. ... Whence did it come? What did it mean? How could I seize and apprehend it? ... And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray (because on those mornings I did not go out before mass), when I went to say good morning to her in her bedroom, my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane. The sight of the little madeleine had recalled nothing to my mind before I tasted it. And all from my cup of tea.
— Marcel Proust,In Search of Lost Time (1913, first English publication 1922)
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