In his 1913 novel Du Côté de chez Swann, French literary great Marcel Proust, in a now universal expression describes how a trigger is capable of transporting a person back to a nostalgic childhood memory (in the case of his book it was the protagonist eating a madeleine dipped in tea). It’s a trigger mechanism brought on by a sensation of tasting a certain food, hearing a piece of music or smelling a familiar scent.

Akin to Anton Ego’s amazing flashback scene in my favourite Disney movie, Ratatouille, when he takes a bite of ratatouille and is immediately transported back to his childhood, at home, being lovingly comforted by his mum with a warm bowl of a more rustic version of the dish, when he hurts himself riding his bike.

When I eat Madeleines, I am not transported back to my childhood, my memory is a little more in the recent past, circa 12 years ago – when I dined with my then boyfriend at restaurant Daniel in New York. First time in NYC, first time eating at Daniel Boulud’s spectacular Manhattan restaurant, dressed to the nines, excitedly anticipating what I thought with 100% confidence, was going to be the stage for an imminent proposal.

I did not get engaged that evening… lost his nerve apparently. (He did eventually ask me a few days later, on the last day of our trip – 6 glasses of Billecart-Salmon down, liquid courage kicked in). The space between our table and the next party was as thin as the ice he was walking on from not proposing earlier on in the trip, so he couldn’t get in between to get down on one knee, and thus, with a deft hand,  he slid the box across the table and asked if he could put a ring on it. And who said romance is dead! (I digress, that’s another story for another time).

Back to Daniel. Our dining experience was not marred by his moment of hesitation/fear however one wishes to interpret it. It was a wonderful night that we hold very dear to us, from getting there in an overpriced tuk tuk on a freezing mid-December NY night, to the magical décor and glorious food. The last course served to the table was a small basket of warm mini-madeleines. Soft, golden little shells of spongy heaven dusted with a light veil of powdered sugar. To this day I can remember exactly where I was sitting. One of my most cherished culinary memories and now my Madeleine de Proust.

I found the recipe online once I got back home, astonishingly simple to make. Mini-madeleine baking pans are easy to find as well. Amazon, Noon, Tavola, Creative Minds all stock them. Don’t buy the standard size pan, its not quite the same – buy the pans for mini-madeleines.  You will not be disappointed.

Find the recipe for Daniel Boulud’s Mini Madeleines in the Recipe section. 

The photo attached to the article and recipe is the last batch I made.