Ode to the Bee
Pablo Neruda, Neruda’s Garden: An Anthology of Odes
…
And from all the homes,
it visits,
the bee extracts
mystic
honey,
rich and turbid
honey, a thick perfume,
liquid light falling in great drops,
until it returns
to the collective
palace
and deposits
in Gothic turrets
the distillation
of flower and flight,
the secret wedding sun of angels!
…
This is my new favorite recipe for Madeleines. The browned butter gives them a great flavor. I’ve written an easier Honey Madeleine recipe in a earlier post but if you have the extra time, make this one instead.
10 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup sugar
3 eggs
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup flour
In a saucepan, melt butter, then simmer gently for 5-6 minutes, until small brown particles appear around the edges of the pan and the butter changes color slightly. Set it aside to cool to room temperature.
With electric mixer, beat the sugar, eggs and salt until they’re light yellow and very thick; stir in the vanilla.
Add the flour and brown butter alternately to the egg mixture, using a folding motion so the batter loses as little volume as possible. Refrigerate the batter covered for 45 minutes, until it is thick.
Preheat oven to 375ยบ. Lightly grease or spray with Pam the Madeleine pan. Fill the pans using 1 slightly rounded tablespoon of batter for each cookie. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes until they’re light brown at the edges. Cool in the pan for several minutes, then remove from the pan and cool completely on a rack.
Brush with Lemon-Honey Butter. Makes 24.
Lemon-Honey Butter:
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Mix all the ingredients together, stirring until smooth.
