Cookstoves in History Part 1 -- to 1940– with Giveaway – by Donna Schlachter

Indonesian traditional brick stove -- Wikipedia

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Which came first—the kitchen or the cookstove? Well, the cookstove, of course. Food preparation has been going on far longer than the separation of an area to prepare the food. In ancient cultures, open fires cooked meat and breads. Later, clay was used to create ovens, enclosing the fire completely for a much more efficient cooking process, particularly for baking and roasting. Both wood and charcoal, or sometimes a combination of both, were used in the process to provide the higher temperatures needed. In these designs, which were about knee high, fuel was added through a hole in the front, while the cooking pots were place over or hung into holes at the top. By as early as the second century AD, this design was common in the Middle East, with China and Japan adopting and adapting similar cookstoves soon after. By the 1600s, after stooping over their stoves for far too long, a raised version was developed in Japan.

In the Middle Ages, waist-high brick-and-mortar hearths appeared, many with chimneys. Food was cooked mainly in cauldrons hanging over the hearth, with temperature regulated by raising or lowering the pot in relation to the flame.

When hearths were redesigned to make them safer, decrease the smoke in the house, and increase the cooking and fuel efficiency, flat-bottomed pots were required to set on the iron plate.

The first design to completely enclose the fire was the 1735 Castrol stove, built by a Bavarian architect. Made of masonry, with fire holes covered by perforated iron plates, this design was also known as a stew stove. By the end of the 18th century, the design including devices to hang the pots in the holes.

 

The Rumford Range, 1807

In the 1790s, in an effort to restrict chimney to create an updraft which generated more heat so the cookstove would not just cook food but also heat the room, Count Rumford, an avid scientist and inventor, modified fireplaces by inserting bricks into the hearth to angle the side walls. Next, he developed a kitchen range made from brick, making the design more efficient to cook and to heat. This range was popular in large cooking establishments, including the soup kitchen he opened in Bavaria.

Within fifty years or so, Rumford’s design was adapted for use in private homes. The first cast iron stoves replaced the bulkier masonry versions, and by the 1850s, the modern kitchen, complete with a cooking range, was seen in most middle-class homes. The growth of American coal mining in the early years of the 19th century and iron mining made these cast iron ranges more available and affordable. Before this, early metal stoves were imported from Holland and England.

Perfect for larger families or boarding houses, these styles offered multiple cooking options -- Wikipedia

Early gas stove 1904 -- Wikipedia

 

Gas stoves were introduced in the 1820s, but while they proved a major improvement to the cooking process, the fuel was not readily available. In 1851, a gas stove was shown at The Great Exhibition in London, but the technology didn’t come into widespread use until the 1880s.

Budapest tiled range -- Wikipedia

Following the Civil War, ranges with baking ovens attached became popular, spreading heat thoroughly throughout loaves while keeping the top crust tender. Stoves of this time also allowed the heat to be concentrated on one side of the stove top, so that food could be cooked at different temperatures based on where the pot or pan was set.

Patent for "Electric cooking stove" -- Wikipedia

At the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, an electrified range was demonstrated, but the notion was slow to catch on because consumers living outside large cities didn’t have access to electricity. In addition, the ranges had poor temperature controls, and their heating elements didn’t last long.

AGA cooker -- Wikipedia

The first practical design for the electric range was patented by Australian David Smith in 1905, followed soon by the high-end gas stove called the AGA cooker in 1922. This version incorporated the best of the cast iron cooker and became popular in Sweden. By the 1930s, Britain had adopted this style, which is still made today in England.

Next month, we’ll explore the history of cookstoves beyond the 1940s.

 

Giveaway: Leave a comment to enter a random drawing for a free ebook of “Cooking Up Trouble” in The Recipe Box series. Learn more about the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Cooking-Up-Trouble-Contest-Mystery-ebook/dp/B0CGKFS338

And the rest of the Series: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BMM1CTLJ





About Donna:

A hybrid author, Donna writes squeaky clean historical and contemporary suspense. She has been published more than 60 times in books; is a member of several writers groups; facilitates a critique group; teaches writing classes; and judges in writing contests. She loves history and research, traveling extensively for both, and is an avid oil painter. She is taking all the information she’s learned along the way about the writing and publishing process, and is coaching committed career writers.



 

www.DonnaSchlachter.com Stay connected so you learn about new releases, preorders, and presales, as well as check out featured authors, book reviews, and a little corner of peace. Plus: Receive 2 free ebooks simply for signing up for our free newsletter!

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Resources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_stove

https://www.oldhouseonline.com/kitchens-and-baths-articles/kitchen-appliances/history-of-the-kitchen-stove/

The Delicious History of Oreo Cookies

By Michelle Shocklee

I have a confession. 

I love Oreo cookies. 

I mean, I love Oreo cookies. I can easily eat an entire package of them--regular, Double Stuff, mint, chocolate, etc. -- all by myself. In one day. Sadly, I'm older now, and Oreos and my waistline don't get along as well as they did back when I was a girl. I only allow myself to buy them a couple times a year now, so they are truly a special treat!

In honor of my affection for the yummy sandwich cookie, I included a black-and-white dog in my new novel Appalachian Song and named him Oreo! And because I named a dog Oreo in my book, it got me thinking about where Oreos came from in the first place. 

Until the late 19th century, the biscuit (also known as cookies) and cracker industry was made up of small independent local bakeries preparing and selling their products in bulk. Barrels and crates of these products were delivered by horse and wagon to grocery stores and were sold to consumers by weighing out the desired amount. In 1890, a group of 33 bakers combined to form the American Biscuit & Manufacturing Company. In February 1898, 114 factories joined forces with them and formed the National Biscuit Company, also known as Nabisco.

Joseph Loose was a member of Nabisco's Board of Directors, but in 1902, he and his brother Jacob liquidated their holdings and formed their own company, eventually known as Sunshine Biscuit, Inc. It is this company, not Nabisco, who came up with the idea for a cookie, or biscuit, made from two chocolate cookie wafers with a creamy, white center. It was developed in 1908. 

For 90 years, Sunshine Biscuit sold the familiar-looking cookie under the name Hydrox, with the name derived from the hydrogen and oxygen elements within the water molecule, a nod to "purity and goodness." Consumers went crazy for them. Their popularity did not go unnoticed by the powers-that-be at Nabisco. In a move that seems rather underhanded, Nabisco created a similar cookie in 1912 and called it the Oreo Biscuit. The competition began. Interestingly, the origins of the name Oreo are unknown. There are theories out there, with French, Greek, or even Latin connections, but the truth is no one knows. An odd name, however, didn't stop consumers from purchasing the delicious treat. 

Nabisco's Oreo eventually surpassed Hydrox in popularity, resulting in the Hydrox cookies being perceived as an Oreo copycat. Compared to Oreos, Hydrox cookies have a less sweet filling and a crunchier cookie shell that doesn't get as soggy when dipped in milk, which as any Oreo cookie lover will tell you, is vital!

Ad for Oreos, 1961

The Oreo Biscuit was renamed in 1921 to Oreo Sandwich. In 1948, the name was changed to Oreo Crème Sandwich, and in 1974 it became the Oreo Chocolate Sandwich Cookie, the name that has remained to this day. 

Double Stuff Oreos were introduced in 1974 in various flavors. In 1987, fudge covered Oreos hit the market. Halloween Oreos arrived in 1991, and Christmas Oreos in 1995. Today, Oreo sandwich cookies come in dozens of flavors and colors. They are available around the world. Overall, it is estimated that since the Oreo cookie's inception in 1912, over 450 billion Oreos have been produced worldwide. 

I wonder how many of them I've consumed through the years?! 

Your turn: What is your favorite cookie? Do you dunk them in milk or not?

Michelle Shocklee is the author of several historical novels, including Count the Nights by Stars, winner of the 2023 Christianity Today Book Award, and Under the Tulip Tree, a Christy Awards and Selah Awards finalist. Her work has been included in numerous Chicken Soup for the Soul books, magazines, and blogs. Married to her college sweetheart and the mother of two grown sons, she makes her home in Tennessee, not far from the historical sites she writes about. Visit her online at www.MichelleShocklee.com


APPALACHIAN SONG

Forever within the memories of my heart.
Always remember, you are perfectly loved.

Bertie Jenkins has spent forty years serving as a midwife for her community in the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee. Out of all the mothers she’s tended, none affects her more than the young teenager who shows up on her doorstep, injured, afraid, and expecting, one warm June day in 1943. As Bertie and her four sisters tenderly nurture Songbird back to health, the bond between the childless midwife and the motherless teen grows strong. But soon Songbird is forced to make a heartbreaking decision that will tear this little family apart.

Thirty years later, the day after his father’s funeral, Walker Wylie is stunned to learn he was adopted as an infant. The famous country singer enlists the help of adoption advocate Reese Chandler in the hopes of learning why he was abandoned by his birth parents. With the only clue he has in hand, Walker and Reese head deep into the Appalachian Mountains to track down Bertie Jenkins, the midwife who holds the secrets to Walker’s past.

https://www.tyndale.com/p/appalachian-song/9781496472441

History of Eating Utensils by Donna Schlachter with Giveaway

 

http://www.eatingutensils.net/history-of-cutlery/

 

From the beginning of time, after humans learned to heat their food to make it more palatable, the need for tools to prepare and serve the food became obvious. After all, dismembering a wildebeest required a sharp instrument, as did turning over a hunk of meat on a hot stone in a fire pit.

https://www.pexels.com/photo/4992936/

Originally, people used whatever they had at hand. A piece of flint for what we now know as a knife. A sharp stick as a fork. A carved rock to grind grain or hold liquid. A shell or a chip of wood might be a spoon. Interestingly, the material used depended on where you lived. The ancient Greek and Latin word for spoon was cochlea, or shell, while the Anglo-Saxon word was spon, meaning a chip of wood.

Eventually, uniformity in the tools needed created craftspeople who sharpened flint and tied them to handles made from bones or antlers, or who carved indentations in rocks to use as a pestle or bowl. Various people groups perfected the forming and firing of clay pots to cook in, to hold ingredients, and to eat off of. Spoons were easy to carve from wood, and were used not only in cooking but also as a transport device to get the food from the banana leaf to the lips.

Next came the use of softer metals, such as copper and bronze, allowed for casting of utensils such as knives, forks, spoons, ladles, and more. Pots and pans were also made of these more malleable materials, and storage of foods was made easier. Eating utensils such as forks and spoons hadn’t become popular. Instead, the two-tined fork was used primarily in cooking.

Around the eighth century BC, the Romans—those masters of invention and ingenuity, expanded available kitchen and cooking tools to include meat hooks to hang meat to smoke, or to fish it out of a pot; meat mincers, to grind the meat into a form that was more easily cooked and served to tenderize what might otherwise be a tough cut of meat; spatulas for turning food over more easily in the pan; colanders to strain out water or other unwanted fluids; and ladles for serving soups, broths, and stews.

https://www.pexels.com/photo/kitchen-utensils-on-the-kitchen-counter-4794871/

In the Middle Ages (500 AD – 1500 AD), slotted spoons became popular, as did frying pans, pepper mills, tongs and even a waffle iron. Weighing scales, roasting forks, rolling pins, and cheese graters became essential tools in modern—at least, according to medieval definition—kitchens. During this time, wealthy families, no doubt wanting to show off their wealth, used a smaller version of the cooking fork for eating. Also around this time, these same families used spoons made of precious metals. In particular, around the 1300s, pewter became popular, making spoons affordable. Forks made an appearance after a wedding in 1004, in which the bride used a golden fork at her wedding feast. Given that most people used their fingers and knives at this point, you can imagine the stir it caused. However, local clergy considered she was trying to upstage God, who had provided us with natural forks—our fingers—and when she died a few years later of the plague, asserted her death was God’s punishment.

In modern times, beginning in the 1600s, with wealth and education expanding across Europe and now into the Americas, and with increased use of servants, more specialized tools, such as apple corers, cork screws, and, within two hundred years, can openers, appeared. By this time in history, knives were also popular, both for cooking and eating. However, in 1669, King Louis XIV of France, disgusted that diners regularly used the tips of their knives to clean their teeth (other versions of this story say it was to decrease violence at table), decreed that any knife brought to the table must have a rounded tip. In 1608, an English traveler published an account of the fork in Europe. Forks were quickly adopted in England, but the Americas were slower to catch on to the practice. By the early 1700s, in Europe, four-tined forks proved easier for scooping food for quicker consumption of meals, leaving more time for other activities.

In the United States, beginning in the 1800s, labor saving devices became common in every household. Potato peelers, jelly molds, and salad spinner proliferated, long before anybody ever dreamed of Tupperware. By this time, forks were well established in the United States.

Copper utensils, which reacted with acidic foods, declined, and other metals came into common usage, such as tinned or enamel iron, and, eventually, steel, tin, and aluminum.

http://www.eatingutensils.net/history-of-cutlery/

 

 

In my upcoming release, Cooking Up Trouble, set in 1834, most of the emphasis is on utensils used in baking. At this time in history, the standardized measuring system hasn’t been established (that doesn't happen until the late 1890s with the Fanny Farmer Cookbook), so everybody’s version of a pinch, a measure, a cup, and other common forms of measuring ingredients was different. Recipes were often shared, with varying results. My heroine spends a lot of time not only testing the measure of ingredients, but in figuring out what the two missing ingredients in her grandmother’s walnut cake might be. You can check out the book that’s releases September 12th, but is available for pre-order, here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CGKFS338

Leave a comment to enter a random drawing for an ebook copy of Cooking Up Trouble once it releases.

About Cooking Up Trouble:
A shameful marriage proposal to settle a debt, and a secret calling to do women’s work land Holly and Adam as opponents in a baking contest in Chicago, 1834. Can they overcome their headstrong desire to fix their own problems, or will they submit to God’s call on their lives?

About Donna:

A hybrid author, Donna writes squeaky clean historical and contemporary suspense. She has been published more than 60 times in books; is a member of several writers groups; facilitates a critique group; teaches writing classes; ghostwrites; edits; and judges in writing contests. She loves history and research, traveling extensively for both, and is an avid oil painter. She is taking all the information she’s learned along the way about the writing and publishing process, and is coaching writers at any stage of their manuscript. Learn more at https://www.donnaschlachter.com/the-purpose-full-writer-coaching-programs Check out her coaching group on FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/604220861766651



www.DonnaSchlachter.com Stay connected so you learn about new releases, preorders, and presales, as well as check out featured authors, book reviews, and a little corner of peace. Plus: Receive 2 free ebooks simply for signing up for our free newsletter!

www.DonnaSchlachter.com/blog

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Twitter: www.Twitter.com/DonnaSchlachter

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Need a writing coach? https://www.donnaschlachter.com/the-purpose-full-writer-coaching-programs

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Resources:

https://blog.etundra.com/get-equipped/history-kitchen-utensils/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/a-history-of-western-eating-utensils-from-the-scandalous-fork-to-the-incredible-spork-64593179/

http://www.eatingutensils.net/#google_vignette

http://www.eatingutensils.net/history-of-cutlery/

German Chocolate Cake's Sweet History

Germany is known for numerous tasty desserts: lebkuchen, Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (Black Forest cake), Bienenstich (bee sting cake), Rote Grütze (Red Berry Pudding), streusels, linzers, and dozens more.

But ironically, one dessert that did not originate in Germany is German Chocolate Cake.

https://images.app.goo.gl/52Yu6Uki6cdvuotJ9

German Chocolate Cake is a layered chocolate cake, topped and filled with a pecan-coconut frosting. Sometimes, chocolate frosting is used on the sides, and maraschino cherries occasionally appear as a garnish.

It is named not for its country of origin, however, but to honor the man who developed the type of chocolate used.

Samuel "Sammy" German was an Englishman who came to Dorchester, Massachusetts in the mid 19th-century, and found a job at America's first chocolate factory, Baker's Chocolate Company. Baker's was started in 1764 (then known as Hannon's Best Chocolates, although John Hannon and Dr. James Baker were partners.)

For over eighty years, the company produced cakes of chocolate for use as drinking chocolate, and by the California Gold Rush in 1849, Baker's Chocolate (now under the direction of Walter Baker) was found across America.

Baker's Cocoa Advertisement, January 1919 Issue of Overland Monthly. Public Domain.

In 1852, however, Sammy German had an idea. He developed a new type of chocolate, one that contained more sugar. This sweeter chocolate could be used for baking, and it's said Walter Baker bought the recipe for a whopping $1000. From that point on, the chocolate was sold as "Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate."

Over a hundred years later, on June 3, 1957, The Dallas Morning News printed a recipe of the day: "German's Chocolate Cake" submitted by Mrs. George Clay. The cake, with the pecan-coconut frosting, became an instant hit. Some sources claim that the recipe was in wider circulation at the time, but Mrs. Clay's recipe has been credited as the one that drew Baker's attention.

General Foods owned Baker's by this time, and they shared Mrs. Clay's recipe with other American newspapers.  Sales of Baker's Chocolate increased by 73%, and the cake became an American favorite.

Still available, even on Amazon!

Along the way, the apostrophe in "German's" was lost, and the cake is now known as German Chocolate Cake. Baker's is now owned by Kraft Heinz, and the recipe is still going strong. In fact, the recipe is usually printed right on the box.

And if you're not a cake person? Don't despair. German Chocolate is available as a flavoring in beverage syrups and coffees, too. 

June 11 is National German Chocolate Cake Day in America. Are you tempted to celebrate it with a slice this year?

***

Susanne Dietze began writing love stories in high school, casting her friends in the starring roles. Today, she's an award-winning, RWA RITA®-nominated author who's seen her work on the ECPA, Amazon, and Publisher's Weekly Bestseller Lists for Inspirational Fiction. To learn more, visit her website, www.susannedietze.com, and sign up for her newsletter: http://eepurl.com/bRldfv

Her latest is novel is The Blizzard Bride.

WONDER BREAD TURNS 94!

by Ramona K. Cecil

                                                                                                                                                   

I’m of the Howdy Doody generation. If you’re too young to remember Howdy Doody, it was a TV puppet show for children in the 1950s. One of the main sponsors of the show was Wonder Bread with it’s iconic package sporting colorful red, yellow, and blue balloons. I remember those ads very well. What I didn’t know as a kid watching them was that the bread being touted by Howdy Doody and his pal Buffalo Bob Smith, actually got its start in my home state of Indiana.

This month, Wonder Bread turn 94 years old! It was introduced by the Taggart Baking Company of Indianapolis, Indiana, on May 21st, 1921. Leading up to the bread’s launch, the baking company enticed the public with a promotional ad campaign arguably as intriguing as any Apple Computer has put forth in recent years with the tantalizing promise, “Wonder is coming May 21st!”   

Are you “wondering” how the bread got the name “Wonder,” I wonder, with tongue placed firmly in cheek? The brand name was the brain child of Elmer Cline, the baking company’s vice president charged with naming the new product. Cline had witnessed the International Balloon Race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and was filled with “wonder” at the sight of the many colorful balloons rising skyward. The red, yellow, and blue balloon logo on the bread’s packaging pays homage to the event that inspired the product’s name.

 

Balloon Race at Indianapolis Speedway 1909

When the bread hit the stores, Cline and his marketing department continued their genius ad promotion. They sent out company trucks filled with colorful helium-filled balloons and handed the balloons out to kids with a note advertising Wonder Bread to take to their mothers. It worked. Soon, Wonder Bread outsold all other bread brands in Indianapolis. Over the years the company continued to target their youngest customers through promotions like games and magic tricks on the bread’s package as well as sponsoring radio and TV programs for kids like Howdy Doody and personalities like sports heroes and cartoon characters.

 

In 1925, Continental Baking Company bought Taggart and Wonder Bread went national.

In 1928, a bread-slicing machine invented by an Iowan named Otto Frederick Rohwedder completely revolutionized commercial bread baking. Wonder Bread was one of the first to adopt the technology and began selling pre-sliced bread nationwide in 1930. At first the public was skeptical, wary that pre-slicing would cause the bread to be stale. Ultimately, however, fears about less than fresh-tasting bread proved unfounded and the public went wild for the uniformly pre-sliced product. Wonder Bread rode the wave of  public enthusiasm over the new technology and helped to coin the phrase “The best thing since sliced bread.”

Wonder Bread had a bakery pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair, advertising Wonder as the only bread baked at the world's fair.

 With the outbreak of WWII metals required to produce bread slicing machines were needed for the war effort, so, for much of the 1940s, Wonder Bread returned to selling their product unsliced. Despite what might have been viewed as a step backwards, Wonder Bread was quietly making new leaps forward. It was during this time that Wonder Bread was on the forefront of a government supported initiative to eliminate diseases like beriberi and pellagra by enriching commercially sold white bread with vitamins and minerals. Known as the “quiet miracle,” this innovation helped to improve the health of millions of people nationwide and was touted in Wonder Bread’s slogan, “Helps build strong bodies 12 ways.”  It was also during this period that Wonder Bread revolutionized commercial bread-baking with a new process that eliminated holes in the bread.

 

Continuing to innovate, Wonder introduced nutritional information and open-dating to their packaging in the 1970s and, in the mid 1980s, brought a reduced-calorie Wonder Bread to a more health-conscious public.

In 1995 Interstate Brands bought the Continental Baking Company and the Wonder Bread brand. Six years later, in 2001, the company honored Wonder Bread’s 80th birthday with a hot air balloon tour of the country, reminding folks about how the famous bread got its name.

Today, Wonder Bread is part of Flowers Foods.



Back in the 1950s as I sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the TV set, singing along with the Howdy Doody theme song between bites of a peanut butter sandwich, would I have cared if I knew that the bread I was eating got its start in Indiana? I doubt it. But today, I say “Happy birthday, Wonder Bread! One of Indiana’s own.

Do you have a special childhood memory of Wonder Bread? I’d love to hear it!

Ramona K. Cecil is a poet and award-winning author of historical fiction for the Christian market. A proud Hoosier, she often sets her stories in her home state of Indiana.

Check out her website at www.ramonakcecil.com

Madeleine Cakes a la French Style

New Year's Greetings from Carla Stewart

A number of years ago, I found a recipe in Country Living Magazine for heart-shaped chocolate Madeleine cakes. It was a Valentine edition with a shopper's guide to purchase the special cast-iron mold. 

Cast Iron Heart Mold

I've long since lost the recipe although I've kept the mold and have used it periodically for brownies and cupcakes when I want the fun flair of a heart-shaped dessert. Since Valentine's Day is just around the corner, I thought I'd share the history of Madeleines (the original version) and a chocolate version.

Madeleine is a French form of Magdalen (Mary Magdalen, a disciple of Jesus, is mentioned in all four gospels. 

There are several versions on the origin of Madeleine cakes, but the two most popular ones hail from the 18th century and the little French town of Commercy, of the Lorraine region. 

One: Nuns in France during the 18th century frequently supported themselves (and their schools) by making and selling a particular sweet. Commercy was home to a convent dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen, but during the French Revolution, all the convents and monasteries of France were abolished, and legend has it that the nuns sold their recipe for Madeleine Cakes for a large sum of money to bakers there when their convent closed.  

Version Two: A young servant girl named Madeleine in Commercy, France, made them for Stanislas Leszcaynska, the deposed king of Poland, when he was exiled to Lorraine. He gave the delicate cakes the name Madeleines. His daughter Marie, who was married to Louis XV (1710-1774), was quite fond of them. They became wildly popular in Versailles, where they are still made today. 

So what are Madeleine cakes? 

Madeleine Cakes

They are small delicate sponge cakes with a distinctive shell-like shape derived from the special pans they are baked in. Aside from the special pan, no other special tools or ingredients are needed. 

The traditional recipe is made with vanilla or a lemon zest. I've included instructions for both the traditional and chocolate versions. 

Mold for Madeleines

  
Traditional Madeleine Cakes:

Ingredients: 

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon orange zest (optional)
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 
• 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar 

Preparation: Cream the butter and granulated sugar on high until it is light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and orange zest to the butter. Turn the mixer to low speed and add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as needed. 

Beat the mixture on medium-high for about 3 to 4 minutes, until the mixture has lightened in color and is very fluffy. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour and baking powder. Very gently fold the flour and baking powder into the egg mixture. Once the batter is smooth, cover it and transfer it to the refrigerator for 2 hours. 

Preheat the oven to 375F. Generously grease 2 standard Madeleine pans and spoon the cold batter into the molds. Bake them for 10 to 13 minutes, until they are puffed and turn golden brown. Invert the pans onto wire racks and give them a hard tap to remove the cookies from the molds. Serve them warm dusted with a bit of confectioners’ sugar for the best flavor. 

This recipe makes 12.

Chocolate Madeleines (from Epicurious) 

Ingredients: 

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
• Pinch Salt
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 12 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• Butter for buttering the pans

Preparation:

1. Sift together the flour, cocoa and the salt.
2. Place the eggs and the sugar in a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer and whisk until thick and lemon-colored. Fold in the flour, then melted butter.
3. Butter the Madeleine pans generously, then spoon in the batter, filling each about three fourths full. Refrigerate the filled Madeleine pans and the remaining batter for one hour.
4. Heat the oven to 425°F (220°C).
5. Bake the Madeleines just until they are firm and puffed, about 7 minutes. Turn them immediately from the molds, wipe out the molds, let cool and continue baking the Madeleines until all of the batter is used. The Madeleines are best when eaten slightly warm or at room temperature the same day they are made. 

Makes 36 Madeleines (NOTE: My larger heart-shaped molds made 18 cakes)

Chocolate Madeleines dusted with confectioner's sugar

Secrets to making the perfect Madeleine:  

• Make the dough up to three days in advance and chill it in the refrigerator.
• Heavily butter the molds and chill them so the butter hardens before the molds are filled with batter.
• Refrigerate the filled molds before baking.
• Make sure the oven is fully hot before baking the Madeleines.
• Bake for no longer than 7 minutes — the Madeleines should not quite spring back when you touch them. This ensures a moist result.

Wouldn't these be the perfect ending to your Valentine dinner? 

Are there foods you make that have an ethnic origin or story behind them? I'd love to hear from you in the comments below. Yummmm! 

Carla Stewart is the award-winning author of five novels. With a passion for times gone by, it is her desire to take readers back to that warm, familiar place in their hearts called “home.” Her newest release is The Hatmaker's Heart. In New York City’s Jazz Age, a naïve, but talented young hat designer must weigh the cost of success when the rekindled love with her childhood sweetheart is lost and her integrity in the cutthroat fashion world is tested.

Learn more about Carla at www.carlastewart.com