It’s the French group this evening and the topic for discussion is food. With reference to Proust’s unforgettable experience, I have just made a batch of madeleines. I hadn’t been aware of the importance, in his memory, of the madeleine having been first dipped into a cup of tea. Dunked even! Proust’s tea would have been a tisane of lime (linden) blossom.

“No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory – this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me it was me. … Whence did it come? What did it mean? How could I seize and apprehend it? … And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray (because on those mornings I did not go out before mass), when I went to say good morning to her in her bedroom, my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane. The sight of the little madeleine had recalled nothing to my mind before I tasted it. And all from my cup of tea.”
— Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time

To make 12 madeleines

150g plain flour
½tsp baking powder
80g unsalted butter
55g caster sugar plus extra for dusting
2 eggs
1tbsp honey
1tsp vanilla paste

Oven at 180°.

Melt the butter gently in a small saucepan and allow to cool but not harden

Sieve the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Whisk the eggs and add these together with the butter, sugar,vanilla paste and honey. Whisk until smooth.

Using two spoons, divide the mixture between the 12 lightly greased moulds of a madeleine tin. Bake for 8-10 minutes until puffed and golden. When cool enough to handle, remove from the tin to a cake rack and sprinkle over a light dusting of caster sugar.