baking - The Seventh Sphinx

February 17, 2013March 10, 2013

on the menu: chocolate pecan banana bread

I like the banana bread recipe from this retro 1968 Better Homes & Gardens cookbook. The chocolate and pecans are my contribution, along with some other little substitutions and additions. For whatever reason, it’s never turned out so well before. Mysteries of baking.

Why is it sometimes crumbs bother me in photos (and I will make a tiresome effort to get rid of them), and sometimes they seem to add a kind of unposed and appetizing authenticity?

Oh, and I had a soft-cooked egg, too (note to self: 3 minutes is not enough). With soldiers, as they say. Eggcup performance going strong.

February 11, 2013March 10, 2013

on the menu: Proust and madeleines

I asked for a madeleine pan for Christmas.

Because, you know, Proust.

I defy you to read the opening chapters of Vol. 1 of In Search of Lost Time and not want a madeleine. Even or especially if, like me, you’ve never had one before.

They tend to be expensive to buy, so: literary baking! Turns out they are a bit laborious to make*, so I see why the expense. It also turns out that they are wonderful; a satisfying, delicate crunch of resistance yielding to a soft, lemon cake.

I’m amiably disposed toward them for turning out well on the first try. Curious to try some alternate flavors now, in which the butter is infused with earl grey tea or lavender buds.

I think the lesson here is, Proust does not disappoint.

*recipe from Dorie Greenspan, Baking: From My Home to Yours

N.B. This is what happens if you overfill the molds. I dread to think what happens if you don’t sufficiently butter and flour the pan.