Pastry Wednesday

Wednesday is an awful day. It's the middle of the week, usually the one when everything seems to pile up. It's also terribly far from the weekend, but you've already had two days of weekday BS. This semester, I have a ridiculous amount of classes on Wednesday and don't get out until 8. This is the price I pay for none on Monday or Tuesday so I'm not complaining. However, I needed to think of a way to make Wednesdays a bit more bearable. Perhaps give myself a little something to look forward to. And then, walking past one of the many patisseries that haunt me from every corner of Lyon, I thought of the brilliant idea of Pastry Wednesday. Every week, I will buy one pastry, take pictures of it, smell it, examine it, and eventually eat it. I will then review said pastry on my blog. This has the advantage of brightening up my crappy Wednesdays, curtailing my pastry eating throughout the rest of the week (very necessary), and giving me something to blog about.

I'm aware that it is, in fact, Saturday, but seeing as I have class until 8, Pastry Wednesday blogs will probably rarely be posted on Wednesdays. Let's be honest, here. This Wednesday, I decided to try the wonderful cookie that shares my name, the Madeleine. These guys are about as big as the palm of your hand and made out of yellow sponge cake. Sometimes they're dipped in chocolate, but I opted for the classic plain cookie. I bought a package of them at the grocery store because I was too lazy to look for a patisserie, but it was still really delicious. Buttery and sweet, the cakes are baked in special pans that form their unique shell shape. The name's history is somewhat unclear. The most common story seems to be that they were named after a 19th century pastry chef, Madeleine Paulmier. Or that's what Wikipedia said, anyway. The point is, they were great. So great that I ate five. Note to self: buy pastries in one serving size next time.