Claudia Fleming’s Honey Madeleines
![Dainty madeleines flavored with honey and browned butter.](https://www.foodgal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Honey-madeleines-lede-733x1024.jpg)
When my mom suffered a stroke years ago, the only thing she wanted to eat for a long time was — inexplicably — lemon meringue pie.
When my elderly aunt was hospitalized last year, the only food that could comfort her was — surprisingly — madeleines.
Say what you will about the women in my family, but there’s no denying they like their sweets.
I readily admit I take after them, too.
When I would visit my aunt in the hospital, I’d pick up madeleines from a French bakery to take to her for a real treat. Because believe it or not, even though I bake up a storm at home on a regular basis, madeleines were not something I’d ever made.
Wanting to surprise my aunt, I bought madeleine pans this year. I was going to bake her some fresh to deliver in person. But then COVID-19 crushed those plans mercilessly.
As I wait out shelter-in-place until it’s permissible to drive an hour to visit someone her age again, I decided to break in my pans with a madeleine test-run.
I found the perfect recipe in the newly reissued classic cookbook, “The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern” (Random House) of which I received a review copy. The cookbook is by the incomparable Claudia Fleming, the former pastry chef at New York’s landmark Gramercy Tavern.
![](https://www.foodgal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/The-Last-Course.jpg)
Originally published in 2001, the book became coveted not only by home-cooks, but top pastry chefs. If the latter prize it so much, you know it’s got to be worth having in your collection, too.
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