French cooking club – Madeleines and Marcel Proust
Madeleines are small cakes that are originally from north-east France. They are baked in a special tin to give them their unique shell shape.
We learned that madeleines are so famous partly thanks to Marcel Proust, a French author, who wrote about them in his novel À la Recherche du Temps Perdu (In Search of Lost Time). At the beginning of the novel, the narrator takes a bite of a madeleine cake. The taste suddenly reminds him of lots of memories of his childhood that he had completely forgotten. Proust wanted to show his readers that some memories are involuntary (we don’t think of them on purpose), and that smells, sounds and tastes can be powerful reminders of old people, places, and feelings.
After learning about why madeleines are famous, we then made chocolate and caramel sauces to dip our madeleines into and decorated them with marshmallows and chocolate. Here are the recipes if you would like to make these at home!
Caramel sauce (for 4 people)
You will need a saucepan, 100g of light brown sugar, 60ml double cream and 60g of margarine.
- Put the brown sugar and cream into a saucepan.
- Heat gently until the sugar dissolves.
- Allow it to bubble gently for 4-5 minutes without stirring – stirring makes the sugar crystalise so the caramel won’t be smooth.
- Take the saucepan off the heat and let it cool for 10 minutes (while you wait, you can make your melted chocolate sauce)
- When the mixture has cooled, stir in the margarine to complete the delicious caramel.
Melted chocolate (for 2 people):
You will need a saucepan, bowl and 50g of chocolate.
- Put 100ml water into a saucepan. Turn on the heat so it starts to boil.
- Break the chocolate into a bowl.
- Put the bowl on top of the saucepan and stir the chocolate occasionally. The hot steam from the water will melt the chocolate slowly so it won’t burn. This method is called a bain marie.
