Okay. How many of you actually remember that movie?

The old one with Spencer Tracey, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Ethel Merman, Jonathan Winters, Mickey Rooney, Buddy Hackett, Phil Silvers, and an additional cast of THOUSANDS!!! Or am I really showing my age here??

The plot of the movie is the pursuit of hidden treasure in the form of $350,000. A lot of money 49 years ago. {It was remade in 2001 under the title “RatRace” with a prize of $2 million and it was not nearly as funny.}

This month I had my own pursuit for hidden treasure. The ability to make a decent MADELEINE. Over the four years of Tuesdays with Dorie the bakers made 4 different types of Mads. I missed out on three of them. And the ones I did make were some really horrible looking Blobs made in a really bad, CHEAP pan!! At that time, Jan 2011, I said I would get a decent pan. I did. And the results are MUCH MUCH MUCH better!!

Not all three are in May, but I decided to do them all together.


May 20, 2008, Traditional Madeleines {on the right} was the choice of Tara of Smells Like Home and she was right, they are very easy to overcook even when you start with a cold pan AND cold batter!!

The traditional mads are a sweet little sponge cake made into a cookie. The pan gives them a lovely scalloped shape that makes them a beautiful cookie to share and show off. I did discover that it is better to UNDER fill the pan rather than simply fill the pan. I like the edges better on the smaller ones.

November 8, 2011 found us baking Mads again. This time Mini-Madeleines {middle ones} chosen by my friend Di of Di’s Kitchen Notebook. Her daughter, Brianna, was intrigued by this cookie because her middle name is Madeline. No, her daughter was NOT named after a cookie but rather after her Italian Grandmother.

You will notice that my Mini’s are not mini but full sized. I only have the one full sized pan {maybe I need to remedy that!}. I baked them for a minute more than the Traditional mads and they came out just a little over done.

Lastly on this MAD-cap baking marathon I made my favorite of the four – Earl Grey Madeleines {left ones} which were chosen for us by Nicole of Bakeologie on December 6, 2011. What a great idea to put tea IN the cookie!! I had some Cream Earl Grey in the cabinet from The Metropolitan Tea Company which has a hint of cream the the additional flowery flavor of cornflowers.

It is one of my favorite teas. I would like to try these with Masala Chai and a Christmas Spiced tea. There are all kinds of flavors you could play with for these madeleines.

So there you have it. Three different Madeleines from Dorie’s Baking From My Home to Yours. The recipes are similar but just different enough to change the flavor. The Mini’s use brown sugar while the others don’t. All three use lemon zest. The Minis and Earl Grey mads use honey. Just different enough!!

The recipes are all posted on each host’s website. Go out, buy a pan, and make these delightful little sponge cookies.

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