French Tart’s Classic Madeleines: Madelines: Little Fluted Cakes

These are one of my favourite French cakes; delicate little light sponge cakes, baked in special fluted trays and sprinkled lightly with icing sugar, so elegant, light and airy! Some are flavoured with vanilla extract only, whilst other recipes suggest using lemon or orange; my recipe uses a combination of vanilla extract and lemon. These are ideal served with afternoon coffee or with a glass of dessert wine after a meal, just as the French serve them. You can also dip the tips into melted chocolate, but I prefer mine to be a little more subtle – but it is up to you!

Basque Cream (Natillas) Dessert Sauce

From Teresa Barrenechea in The Basque Table, this is a great sauce to dress up plain cakes or custards. This recipe accompanies her Recipe #397727 and I didn’t include it in that recipe because the amount it makes is way more than is needed and it throws off the nutritional values considerably! It is the equivalent to pouring custard, natillas (although more liquid than the firmer Santa Fe style natillas) or creme anglais.

Gateau Basque (French Pastry Cream Version)

Per Pierre-Yves Chupin in *French Bistro and Cafe Cooking* , “There are 2 versions of *Basque Cake* , 1 based on cherry preserves & another on pastry cream (creme patissiere) that is always very popular.” A RZ search yielded several recipes for cherry preserves versions & none for the latter that I could find, so I am entering it here as he opted to do in his cookbook. (Time does not include time for dough to rise). *Enjoy* ! — *Edited to Add* — Despite extraordinary efforts to verify & correct this recipe + 2 tries at making it by Buddha, it appears the recipe may be faulted in some way. Details + photos of the recipe from the cookbook can be found at http://www.recipezaar.com/bb/viewtopic.zsp?t=261947&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30. If anyone can shed light on this prob, it would be welcomed. Until that happens, I plan to try to email the author & publisher to register a complaint. If they respond, that answer will be posted in this thread at that time. 🙁

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