Welcome to Baked, a new column in which Amrita Rawat will share her adventures in the kitchen as she explores our fair city. Born in India and a longtime resident of Atlanta, Rawat recently moved to St. Louis to attend graduate school at Washington University. After eating her way through places like Hong Kong, Paris, Budapest, Mumbai and Shangri-La, she discovered a love for baking and a knack for creating inventive and tasty recipes. You can follow her on her sweet journey every other Monday right here on SauceMagazine.com. It all started with a package.
I missed FedEx delivering a package to my apartment twice, so I had to pick it up in an unfamiliar place. New to town, I set the GPS to Grand Boulevard. Once I got there, I noticed a series of interesting places down the street – a Chinese bakery that had my name all over it, a string of international eateries and (Bingo!) a global grocery. I grabbed the package and quickly wandered down the street to Jay International Food.
One of my favorite pastimes is checking out new grocery stores, especially in new places. (My grandma back in India always finds it amusing that I enjoy going to the grocery store with her, but you just never know what you’re going to find.) I discovered a lot of items that were new to me at Jay and actually ended up staying so long I had to rush back to my parking meter to toss in a few more quarters. When I got back I saw one particularly interesting ingredient: chestnut paste. It looked so inviting and fancy, I had to give it a shot.
I made these chestnut madeleines that day. With madeleines, the egg mixture must be beaten well so that the shells puff up in the pan. These had a perfect curve. The nut flavor came through nicely, and I finally got to try a chestnut. They taste generally nutty but are unique from other nuts – not too sweet and carrying a distinct and wonderful aroma when cooked. The texture of the madeleines were a cross between a cake and a cookie, leaning more toward a cake-style crumb. The chocolate was a nice addition, but the madeleines were still just mildly sweet, making them a great teatime snack.
If you don’t have a madeleine pan, these can easily be made in a mini muffin pan. Chestnuts also go great with rum, so feel free to add a tablespoon of rum to this recipe, or do as the French do and dunk them in a hot cup of coffee or tea.
Chestnut Madeleines Makes 12
1 large egg, plus 2 large egg yolks, divided
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour, sifted
3 Tbsp. cake flour, sifted
Pinch salt
¼ cup chestnut purée or paste
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
4 oz. milk, dark or semi-sweet chocolate
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Beat the whole egg and the egg yolks on high speed with a hand mixer until light yellow and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
• Add sugar and vanilla and beat until a ribbon drops from the beaters, about 5 minutes.
• Gently fold in the sifted flours, salt, chestnut purée or paste and the melted butter.
• Spray or butter the madeleine pan and spoon the batter into it. Divide the batter evenly; it should fit exactly a dozen.
• Bake for about 10 minutes or until the tops are golden and the cakes spring back when pressed lightly.
• Turn the madeleines out and cool to room temperature.
• Melt the chocolate in the microwave for about 30 seconds at a time, stirring each time, until melted.
• Use a spoon or spatula to spread the chocolate onto the madeleines and set aside to let dry on parchment paper.
For an extra touch of sweetness, you can sprinkle with coarsely ground sugar before the chocolate dries.
These can be stored in an airtight container up to 3 days or frozen for up to 1 month.
This article appears in May 1-31, 2011.
