Les Madeleines

I really do enjoy baking up something delicious. Here are two of my latest efforts, starting with these:

These yummy cookies have a little bit of everything: peanut butter, chocolate, and caramel. Deee-lish.

Peanut Butter, Chocolate, & Caramel Cookies*

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 cup creamy peanut butter

2 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 package of rolos

Beat first 4 ingredients at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat until blended. Stir together flour and next 2 ingredients in a small bowl. Add to butter mixture, beating until blended. Cover and chill 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350°F. Shape a 2 tbsp. dough around each rolo, using lightly floured hands, and roll into balls. Place 3 inches apart on ungreased or parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Bake for 13 to 14 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes. Transfer to wire racks.

Oh and I also had a chance to make these:

These were surprisingly easy to make. The hardest part is probably getting a hold of the pan (luckily my friend Emily provided that for me). We added chocolate sauce to the mix and it was the perfect addition.

Here’s what it looks like before you flip them out of the pan.

Les Madeleines**

2/3 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup butter, melted and cooked

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon orange extract

1/2 teaspoon shredded orange peel

1 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray pan with non-stick spray. Sift together flour and baking powder in small bowl. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat eggs, orange extract, and orange peel on high speed for 5 minutes. Gradually beat in powdered sugar. Beat another 5 minutes or until thick.

Gently fold in flour mixture, then melted butter. Mix until smooth. Spoon into the cups, filling about 3/4 full. Bake approximately 8 minutes, or until edges are light brown. Cool in the pan around 1-2 minutes. Yields: 24 Madeleines.

I’m not sure what I’ll make next, but any suggestions are welcome.

Currently: Catching up on Grey’s Anatomy and all my little projects

*Recipe courtesy of People w/ a slight tweak and inspired by HIMYM

**Recipe courtesy of Emily’s Madeleine pan package

When I checked out the Salt Lake City library last week I also ate at this scrumptious place across the street called Les Madeleines (216 East 500 South, very tiny sign).

Les Madeleines

Les Madeleines was actually the reason I went over there in the first place. I’d first gotten interested in trying this place when I was helping ring a woman up at Ten Thousand Villages. We had bonded over dark chocolate (of course) and were swapping food stories. She mentioned that she had just finished travelling through Europe (jealous) and that she loved Kouing-aman pastries. She said the closest she’d had to European quality was the Kouing-aman at Les Madeleines. Now I had no idea what a Kouing-aman was, nor had I ever tasted one. But that woman sold me on it. I had to try one.

So what is a Kouing-aman? Allow me to wikipedia it for you: “A [Kouing-aman is a] round crusty cake, made with a dough akin to bread dough with sugar sprinkled between layers. The resulting cake is slowly baked until the butter puffs up the dough (resulting in the layered aspect of it) and the sugar caramelizes. The name derives from the Breton words for cake (“kouign”) and butter (“amann”).”

It looks like this:

Kouing-aman and pistachio button from Les Madeleines

And it’s delicious. Flaky and sugary on the outside, soft and delicious dough on the inside. I was glad I made the trip; I can see why it’s their specialty.

You may have also noticed that I couldn’t resist picking up a pistachio macaroon. I also got to taste a few other treats thanks to my friend who came with me. She decided she wanted to sample a little bit of everything and, lucky for me, she also shared them all with me.

More delicious treats from Les Madeleines

It was a great pastry splurge. My favorites were probably the Kouing-aman and the black and white cookie (simple, but I was in a cookie mood). Now I just need to try their lunch menu…

Even our leftovers were wrapped up in a cute little box.

Currently: getting over my boggle obsession ( I downloaded it on my phone a little while ago). It was getting dangerous there for a little while.

Bedelia

The less literal and fictional Amelia

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