We were lucky to know this rather temperamental woman who didn’t suffer fools gladly. We often got to be the recipients of her wonderful cooking and she came to our home to pass on her skills to my mother. I, of course, was hanging about, learning too. One time she came over and shared with us her secrets for making that famous French dish, Boeuf Bourguignon. It would seem, according to Madeleine, that in order to properly prepare such a dish, consumption of the beautiful ruby red wine was necessary. That turned into quite a cooking party as I recall.
Puff pastry is another all day kind of cooking feat which really deserves company, and Madeleine was a perfect teacher and conversationalist. First you make dough which then gets rolled into a large square, spread with butter, and folded into thirds and then thirds again. The brick gets wrapped in wax paper and then put into the refrigerator to harden. After an appropriate cooling period, the process is repeated until about a pound of butter is worked into the dough. Because of the folding process, the dough bakes into flaky buttery layers which can be formed into crescents, pastry cookies or used to enfold a meat roast or brie cheese. It is very time intensive, but oh so worth the effort and wonderful to share with a family or a good friend.
But the thing Madeleine was most famous for was “d’ cookie”. By this she meant the shell shaped buttery cake cookies with which she shared her name. She often brought a large tin of these rich little mouth-fulls to folk-dancing rehearsals or as a gift at holidays. The molded pans hold only 12 cookies and they are frightfully fussy to make. I think this is why she was cranky about how quickly they disappeared after being presented. They are usually flavored with vanilla and sprinkled with powdered sugar, but they can have lemon, orange or almond flavorings.
Some years ago, Madeleine must have sensed her approaching death and gave the three Madeleine pans to my mother. She could no long bake “d’ cookie” and she hoped my mother would take on the tradition. A few years later, my mother gifted me with the pans because of my fond memories of the woman who introduced us to the beautiful little cakes. I feel it is such an honor to receive something as intimate as cooking equipment so lovingly used over the years. I love to make these sweets at holiday time and remember our dear friend and hope we meet again some day to talk over dance, food, and “d’ cookie”.
