Celebrating Julia Child: Madeleines

One hundred years ago, on August 15, 1912, Julia Carolyn McWilliams was born in Pasadena, California.  Baby Julia would grow up to be Julia Child, whose professional life would be dedicated to cuisine.  With the publication of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, she successfully brought the wonder of French cuisine to the United States.  The first televised cooking series, The French Chef, premiered in 1963 and transformed Julia into America’s fist celebrity chef.

To honor Julia’s centennial, I baked madeleines (pronounced mad-lens).  Madeleines are small, shell-shaped cakes flavored with vanilla and a hint of lemon.  Uncomplicated and adorned with a sprinkle of confectioners’ sugar, madeleines are a tribute to the simple flavors of classic French cuisine.

These madeleines are adapted from the Traditional Madeleine recipe in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours.  Dorie Greenspan is a great cookbook author, and, coincidentally, authored Baking with Julia–the cookbook of recipes featured on the PBS series of the same name.

See the recipe, after the jump.

Millions of Peaches, Peaches for Pie!

When I moved to the South two years ago, I was excited by the promise of wonderful southern peaches.  While over the years I had eaten delicious northern-grown peaches from the nearby orchards in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, the lure of the southern peach was undeniable.  Two years in the South, and I have had some absolutely succulent peaches.  Fragrant and juicy, they were the fulfillment of peach-scented dreams.

Unfortunately, these heady orbs were not the fulfillment of southern-grown peaches: they were trucked in from California.  Southern peaches suck.

Georgia, South Carolina, it doesn’t matter.  I haven’t eaten one that didn’t remind me of a hard, flavorless apple with hair.  When peach season arrives, I have learned my lesson and now choose to pay the extra price-per-pound for the California peaches with flavor.

When I find good peaches, I purchase enough to satisfy my pent-up peach cravings for days and days at a time.  If the peaches are still good when I return to the grocery store, bloated with sweet peach juice, I buy enough to make a pie.  If you read my post on blueberry pie then you are well aware of my love of fruit pies.  Summer is the time for most good fruit pies (except for the autumnal apple and mincemeat pies), so permit me another post on that most fleeting of summertime desserts.

Recipes and step-by-step directions after the jump…

I Find My Thrill: Blueberry Pie

When done right, the fruit pie is a thing of beauty.  For me, the ideal fruit pie has a tender, flaky crust and a filling with a clean fruit flavor that isn’t too gummy or too runny.  Generally, I find that making a well-made pie can be an exhausting matter.  This pie is no exception.  However, it’s a damn good pie with a delicious blueberry filling that holds up to cutting without having the texture of a gumdrop.

I can’t say that my method for pie baking will make pie baking any easier, but it will certainly make all of the hard work worth it by creating a delicious pie that your friends and family will coo over.

A delicious slice of blueberry pie perched on the plate just long enough to photograph. He disappeared shortly after and has not been seen since.

The crust recipe is adapted from Martha Stewart’s pate brisée.  The filling is adapted from America’s Test Kitchen blueberry pie (subscription required).

The recipe follows, below.