Conundrum: 101Cookbooks or Joy of Cooking

Conundrum: 101Cookbooks or Joy of Cooking

I am attempting to make madeleines for a very special someone for a "50 Years of Living" celebration this Friday evening. These cookie-like cakes are French favorites, and their buttery-lemon goodness is the perfect companion to afternoon tea, grumpy mornings, melted chocolates, and any other eating opportunity, I'm sure.  I've been waiting for special opportunity to make these, after receiving a special Williams Sanoma Madeleine baking pan for my birthday last year (thanks Becky!).

The conundrum is this: my beautiful turquoise 1964 Joy of Cooking has a recipe for Madelines that involves a double boiler and a full 1/4 cup of additional sugar. The 101Cookbooks recipe utilizes a stand mixer, has less ingredients, and includes pictures. 

Present or past? Simple or more involved? It seems that true baking requires a certain level of knowledge and a bit of complication...

I could use a recipe that has been used by generations of bakers who turn pages with flour-dusted hands, simple aprons and have original Pyrex bowels for the double boiler. Or a recipe from the trendy website bookmarked by foodies, writers, and photographers alike?

Due to my recent late-night cooking mishaps and the fact that my brain has been moving in slow motion for the last hour, I chose the simpler version in the hopes that I won't mess it up. The recipe on 101 Cookbooks is presented by the fabulous Heidi Swanson. (Does she have my dream job? Yes in fact, she does. I love you HS... my initial twin.) However, the beauty of the cover, the smell of its musty pages, as well as the wonderfully complicated instructions of the Joy of Cooking, will be enticing me with its 848 pages of recipes over the next while.

I will let you know, dear 9 readers, how they go over at my beautiful mother's birthday party. 

Now, I have to go re-clean the kitchen that Asher so wonderfully cleaned for me this afternoon.