I started out with the search for the perfect mold. After reading a number of reviews online, I settled for the "Gobel 15-1/2-by-9-Inch Tinned-Steel Madeleine Pan", which I bought from Amazon.com for measly $12. My friend super-chef extraordinaire Bekah recommended instead a silicone mold and seeing that I resisted the idea, she lent me her Gastroflex. Each kind of mold is supposed to have their strength: the metal is supposed to give you a nice golden crust around the pastry, while the silicone is easy to prep and to clean.
In terms of preparing the molds, though, I discovered through experience that the difference is nearly negligible. I put my metal mold in the freezer for 5 minutes, while I melted some unsalted butter. With the butter ready and still warm, I took a brush and "painted" the mold generously with butter, which solidified almost instantly. Using a metal mold elicits the question of whether you should dust the buttered mold with flour, so I prepared half of the mold each way. Prepping the silicone was almost the same deal, except that it didn't need to get chilled and it never asks for a dusting of flour. The difference in overhead work with either mold was almost non-existent.
Now the onto the results. In all cases, with both molds, the madeleines came off easily after baked, so dusting the metal mold made no difference and it's an overhead that I eliminated. Taste and texture, on the other hand differed between metal and silicone. The metal mold gave me a fluffier pastry, more airy and lighter, what was not my favorite result. I read recipes that recommended filling the mold with dough to the brim of the cup, while others recommended filling only a half or 3/4. The completely filled cups didn't look good at all: the dough spread outside the cup into a rectangular shape, instead of giving you the madeleine traditional, characteristic hump. So, given that I wanted to make things work for the mold that I already have, I tried again but filling only 3/4 of the cup. The result was much better and it looked like what I expected.
There was a bit of trick in filling the cups that I didn't read about in any of the recipes I found. Normally, you are told to pipe the dough in with a pastry bag or to just spoon it in. Sometimes, you are told to smooth the top with your fingers, but trying to do so, things got a bit messy as the dough is sticky. Dipping your fingers in cold water does the trick: the dough won't stick to your fingers this way.
The silicone mold gave me a denser, heavier pastry that I liked a lot better. Biting into pastries from each kind of mold, I couldn't tell much difference in terms of crunch on the exterior. As to the color, both were equally acceptable, and to be honest, I think I prefer the yellow of the silicone to the golden brown of the metal. Which kind would you like best is for you to figure out. This really hit the spot for me: the denser pastry has a bood bite and feels absolutely right to my palate, but then again, I haven't tasted madeleines made in France.
As to what recipe to use, I read many and decided to try first the one in Nancy Silverton's "Pastries from the La Brea Bakery". I normally would swear by Jacques Pepin, but I thought that the lack of complexity in the recipe in his "Complete Techniques" was going to follow through in the flavor department. Silverton's recipe calls for ground blanched almonds and I think that this addition made for a very interesting flavor that paired well with the orange zest. I left out the vanilla bean she recommends (the darned thing is expensive!) and used orange instead of the lemon zest. I guess I have some more experiments to bake, or some more cookies to eat, so until next time.
