New Book, New Blog, New Recipe!

Hello, dear readers!  Dana here with some exciting news!  Do you like books and reading and going on adventures without leaving the comfort of your favorite chair?  Well, that's great because I have started an author blog that appeals to all those things.  You can find my website {HERE} or just plug www.wordsbydana.com into your address bar.  My blog is there, in which I discuss life as an independent author and review books I'm currently reading.  The site also shares news about upcoming books, like this one:

^^^ Shameless plug ^^^
Coming in October 2016!

Not to worry, though.  I'll still be guest blogging here about food...delicious, magical, awesome food.  Speaking of, time for a recipe review!

So here's the scenario: a friend of mine is having a birthday this week.  Said friend loves madeleines.  Like, not just enjoys them, loves them and cannot control herself around them.  I was going to make her a butter cake for her birthday, but then I stumbled across a recipe for madeleines in the process and decided that would be better.

For those of you not up on your ultra-specific French food studies, madeleines are little, spongy, shell shaped butter cookies.

Traditional madeleines.  Cute, aren't they?

I have a fantastic idea for all of you.  Next time you have to bring something for a cookie swap, bring these babies.  If you go the extra mile and spring for a proper madeleine pan, everyone will be super impressed!  They are so classy and lovely.

Now, going against what I just said, despite my best efforts, I was not able to find a madeleine pan on short notice, so I had to improvise.  I used a mini-muffin pan and then 13 slots in my mini-scone pan.  I am a little disappointed by this because the little shells do make such a lovely presentation.  Well, you do you best with what you have.  And now the part you've all been waiting for, the recipe!

I used one from Martha Stewart's website here.  Say what you will about her ethics, the woman has some good recipes.  Some of the other recipes I saw were more fussy, which is why I eschewed them for Martha's in the end.  This one is pretty hands off.  Those of you who know mine is a celiac household might be wondering how I dealt with the whole gluten in traditional flour issue.  Thankfully, there are numerous brands of cup-for-cup, all-purpose, gluten-free flours available.  I happened to have used Cup4Cup, but only because I happen to have it on hand.  Honestly, (and I've said this before in a previous post about Victoria sponge) I find that Cup4Cup performs as well as other brands like Domata and King Arthur, but it's much more expensive, so I will likely not buy it again.  Nevertheless, it performed beautifully in this application.  And here's the great thing about GF baking: because there's no gluten, you don't have to worry about over developing it while mixing.  Which is why when my folding technique was failing to do the job, I was able to whack my bowl back under the stand mixer and let it do the work for me.  Then it was just a matter of scooping it into the little pans and baking it.

Quick question: Does anyone know how to keep a sponge from deflating?  Because I've never been able to get that.  I've read that some people drop their pan onto the floor, but that seems a little extreme.  Ideas?  Anyone?

Here they are!  Not the prettiest, little maddies, but lovely and soft!

Of course the big question is whether or not the birthday girl liked her gift.  After all, some people claim that GF baked goods are not as good as the "real thing", can never be as good.  Well, let me put it this way.  Of the twenty-one madeleines I made, she ate twelve.  Twelve!  She could not stop herself from going back for more.  That's what I call a roaring success.

Thank you all for reading, and I do hope you'll pop by and visit my author blog as well.  Until then, cheers!