Madeleines of Commercy-Madeleines and More Madeleines!

Madeleines of Commercy – Commercy France is home to the madeleine and these have to be one of my favorite cookies!  Madeleines are small shell shaped cookies that remind me of a personal sized morsel of pound cake. In French, a pound cake is called a quatre-quarts.

Commercy is a little town with a population of less than 7000. However, there are a multitude of places to visit near by. Bar-le-duc, Nancy, Verdun, St-Mihiel, and Metz are just a few places to explore while nibbling on madeleines.

In search of the madeleines of Commercy, we followed the D964 south from St-Mihiel. It was such a beautiful drive and much closer to our gite than expected.

The madeleines of Commercy date back to 1750s when Stanislas was king of Lorraine. Our visit took us to La Boite au Madeleines.  At mid morning, the lovely buttery smell of madeleines permeated the air. We had a multitude of flavors to choose from and we were able to sample madeleines straight from the ovens.

In France and also in England, Bonne Maman is at the ready to satisfy your craving for madeleines. You’ll find sacks of these golden gems in the supermarket with the other cookies. Here in the southern part of the US, I have not found a consistent source  as they seem to appear at random times in TJ Maxx.

Making My Own Madeleines of Commercy

I found a tasty recipe by Clothilde Dusoulier on her website Chocolate and Zucchini.  This site has become my go-to source for French recipes! She also has a recipe for chocolate madeleines and chestnut honey ones that I plan to try.

The only change I made to her recipe was to use limes for the zest instead of lemons. I purchased the madeleine pans made of tin as she recommended. These heat more evenly than the silicone version. Here is the Amazon link for the pans I used.

Buttered, floured and chilled – ready for the dough.

The first batch I made, I overfilled the tins. The dough was thicker than I expected definitely spread more than I anticipated!  That little edge around the shell is the overflow.

That little flat edge around each madeleines indicates I overfilled the tin.

And then I overcompensated and did not put enough dough on the next batch! A slightly smaller version but still just as tasty!

On the second batch, I overcompensated with too little dough!

Lightly dusted with confectioner sugar and then garnished with a bit of lime zest.

These were, of course, a huge hit with my hubby.

The perfect afternoon snack!

Bon appetit!