It’s a beautiful and peaceful snowy morning here today. The forecast says it will snow all day. And so, it is the perfect setting to finally get to a project I set in my mind two weeks ago. But first……….
Unfurling – March 2014 Santa Barbara
un·furl
ˌənˈfərl/Submit
verb
gerund or present participle: unfurling
make or become spread out from a rolled or folded state, especially in order to be open to the wind. (courtesy Google)
photo courtesy aforismi.meglio.it
Yesterday, after initiating contact via my post, I found the following reply waiting for me,
“Time now, I think, to break out Robert Browning: . “Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, the last of life, for which the first was made. Our times are in his hand who saith, ‘A whole I planned, youth shows but half; Trust God: See all, nor be afraid!”
I certainly appreciate the intent of this gesture – and the beautiful prose here, I do. And, I guess I have seen the first half. But, grow old? No way. I like the “See all” part. I may be growing, but I’m not going to the old side. Not yet. I’m just getting my motor running. Call me in about 30 years.
What is people’s pre-occupation with getting old anyway? I read in the NYT last week of a couple from Seattle who sold their house and at age 58 went off on what I believe they described as their “one last good trip that was in them”. Something like that. I found myself wondering, “what the heck?” Who is old at 58?
Obviously fear is at the root of many people’s behaviors in the aging process. As with just about everything though, one can become overly fixated with this, as a problem or a fear, and go into some self-protection-based pattern of behaviors that has all about it the “winding down” phase. I honestly don’t get it. In my mind, if you’re not living, you’re dying. Who has time to think about it anyway?
Sometimes I find myself wondering if people who had parents who died young unconsciously begin to think they are going off into the next world right around the same time as their parents did. We all know that anything can happen at any given moment and the odds do increase as we do “age”, but honestly, if there is nothing chronically wrong with us physically or mentally, do we need to spend our days planning for our own demise?
Not me, not yet, not for a very long time.
I have a bucket list that’s about 30 miles long – one mile for each year that I hope to remain kicking. And so, I am selecting as my mascot for the “time remaining” the gorgeous fern, shown above, one of the many photos I snapped in that garden in Santa Barbara last March – where they were all taller than I was. I’m just getting going here – I’m in the unfurling stage – open to the wind!
Well, ok, enough, you get the point. It’s snowing and I’m going into the kitchen now. When I was in Florida a couple of weeks ago 🙁 – I became fixated on Proust’s discussion about the Lime Blossom Tea-Scented Madeleines and professed to investigate. Of course, Thomas Keller has a passage about them in his Bouchon Bakery book – (gosh I love that book).
Up today? I plan on using a few of the key limes that I have remaining from last weekend’s key lime pie.
(please note: this batter needs to be refrigerated 8 hours or overnight)
KEY LIME-SCENTED MADELEINES a la Proust – adapted very slightly from Bouchon Bakery
1/4 cup plus 3 1/2 tblsp (68 grams) all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder (2.2 grams)
1/4 tsp kosher salt (0.6 grams)
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon eggs (83 grams) 1/4 cup plus 1/4 tsp granulated sugar(55 grams)
2.3 oz unsalted butter (66 grams)
2 tsp dark brown sugar (9 grams)
1 1/4 tsp clover honey (9 grams)
zest of two key limes
Place the flour in a medium bowl and sift in the baking powder. Add the salt and whisk together. Combine the eggs and granulated sugar in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and mix on medium high speed for about 1 minute, warming the bowl gently as needed (I did this with my hands) to make sure sugar dissolves. Increase speed to high and whip for about 4 minutes, until the color lightens and the batter doubles in volume.
Meanwhile, heat the butter, brown sugar, and honey in a small saucepan over medium heat, whisking to dissolve the sugar, about 1 minute. Remove from heat.
Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and fold in half of the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula, then fold in the remaining dry ingredients until just combined. Scrape the bottom of the bowl to incorporate any dry ingredients that may have settled there. Fold in the lime zest. Pour the warm butter mixture over the batter, and fold until the mixture is incorporated and the batter is smooth.
Place the batter in a covered container and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 350F (convection or standard). Brush the madeleine pan with butter . Refrigerate or freeze the pans to harden the butter. Transfer batter to a pastry bag or use a spoon. Pipe or spoon the batter into the molds – 1 generous tablespoon each. Tap the bottom of the pan against the work surface to smooth the top of the batter.
Bake for 7-8 minutes (convection) or 8-9 minutes (standard), until the tops are lightly browned and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. (The bottoms of the madeleines will brown more quickly than the tops, so keep the tops on the lighter side. Immediately unfold the madeleines and cool on a cooling rack.
little tummies
Dust with confectioner’s sugar.
The madeleines are best eaten the day they are baked, but they can be stored in a covered container for 1 day. Makes 12 madeleines.
photo in the garden – Rosewood Mayakoba 2/15
It has really been a wonderful, snowy day here today – but don’t tell anyone I said that!