60. The History of Madeleines

“A party without a cake is just a meeting.” – Julia Child

It’s our birthday!! Today, The Land of Desire kicks off its fifth year and what better way to celebrate than with a little cake? This week, I’m focusing on the history of one of my favorite French treats: the humble, beloved madeleine! “One could almost call the madeleine France’s national cookie” wrote Patricia Wells in the New York Times back in 1983. She didn’t know about the endless macaron obsession that was still to come, but I think she has a point. This week, pull up a chair, pour a cup of tea, and definitely make sure to sign up for the newsletter (hint: I’m sharing my favorite recipe!!!) while we celebrate the life and times of the French madeleine.

Episode 60: “Madeleines”

Madeleine miscellany:

Transcript

Bienvenue, and welcome back to The Land of Desire! I’m your host Diana, and today it’s time for a celebration – a birthday celebration, that is! The Land of Desire is officially four years old. Can you believe it? I figured we’d kick off our fifth year with a birthday party. Then I realized the party needed one crucial ingredient: cake! After all, as Julia Child once said, “a party without cake is just a meeting.” But we aren’t just going to talk about any old cake. We’re going to talk about my favorite, easy, irresistible and oh-so-French kind of cake: a perfect little seashell that sits on your saucer, begging to be dunked into tea or cafe au lait. That’s right, you guessed it – today we’re talking about the madeleine! One of the all-time classics, madeleines are nevertheless overshadowed, sometimes, by those jewel box macarons in a million colors, or the towering piles of choux pastry and chestnut cream inside a religieuse, and delicately stacked opera cakes. The charming little scalloped sponges are humble and unassuming, and that’s what makes them wonderful. These are not special occasion cakes. They’re the everyday occasion cakes, the Tuesday afternoon treat, the reminder that every day is worth a bit of celebration. Madeleines are the treat of childhood, the simple pleasure of a life well lived. While Christmas might call for a buche de noel and Epiphany demands a galette du roi, the madeleine is the star of one very beloved ritual in particular, one that most foreigners haven’t even heard of: le goûter.

If you’d like to feel your soul exit your body, ask a French woman for her favorite snack. “The French” she will hiss at you in a low tone, eyebrows lowered in disappointment, “do not snack.” Snacking? That is an American thing. It’s sloppy. It’s gauche. Snacking is for undisciplined people, grazing like cattle who wander across the field. The French would never! This solemn truth gets trotted out in every Francophile book published in England or America, next to its cousins: “French people take their time eating meals” and, of course, “French women don’t get fat.” This unholy trinity of French dining aphorisms endures decade after decade, accepted as gospel by foreigners and French people alike. But of course, like every other stereotype about the French and their eating habits, you have to kick at it a little before the truth starts to emerge.

Here is an accurate statement: French people do indeed eat food on a remarkably synchronized schedule. Compared to the United States, where breakfast takes place any time between 5 AM and 3 PM, sliding so carelessly into the next eating window that we call it “brunch”, French dining habits are very strict, very predictable and very, very universal. At 8 AM, breakfast – nothing fancy or too heavy,