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"... automatically, worn out by the gloomy day and by the perspective of a sad tomorrow, I put in my mouth a spoonful of tea in which I had softened a piece of the madeleine.... A delicious pleasure overtook me, isolated, disconnected from any idea about its cause. It immediately made life's vicissitudes indifferent to me, life's disasters became innocuous, its brevity illusory, in the same way that love operates, filling me with a precious essence: or, rather, this essence was not in me, it was me."

Marcel Proust / Remembrance of Things Past / Swann's Way


Chocolate Madeleines

2 extra large eggs, beaten
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour, dry measure, exactly
1 stick (4 oz) butter plus 1 1/2 Tbsp, for pans
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
grated rind of 1/2 lemon
3 drops lemon juice (or 2 of lemon and 2 of bergamot)

For buttering pans:

1 1/2 Tbsp. melted butter and 1 Tbsp. flour

2 Madeleine pans each with 12 depressions 3 inches long.

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All ingredients must be tepid to prevent the melted butter from congealing in the batter before it has blended as it should.

Measure 3/4 of the eggs into a mixing bowl with the sugar and the flour, and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon to blend into a heavy cream; if it's very stiff, beat in a droplet or so of the remaining egg. Set aside for 10 minutes. Meanwhile melt all of the butter in a saucepan, and let it boil until it begins to brown very lightly. Blend 1-1/2 Tbsp into the bowl with the Tbsp of flour, and reserve. Stir the rest of the browned butter over cold water until cool but still liquid. Finally, beat the remaining bit of egg into the batter, and stir in the cool butter. Stir in the salt, vanilla, grated lemon rind, lemon juice and bergamot (if you have any). Cover the batter and set aside for 1 hour (or longer). Using a pastry brush, paint the Madeline cups with a light coating of the browned butter and flour mixture, wiping any pools that form in the bottom of the molds; set aside (refrigerate in warm weather).

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. After its hour-long rest, the batter will be fairly stiff. Using a spoon and a spatula, put a generous tablespoon of batter into each Madeleine cup; do not spread it out. Bake in the middle of a preheated oven for about 15 minutes. Batter will spread out to fill thecups, and will gradually swell up into a hump in the middle. They are done when lightly browned around the edges, and when they begin to shrink very slightly from the molds. Unmold onto a rack. When cool wrap airtight and freeze if they're not to be served immediately.

Too dry and it will be brittle and break while rolling it out and working with it. Too wet and it will stick to everything and be impossible to work with.
Good pasta dough sticks to itself and nothing else.
I highly suggest getting a machine to roll out the dough and make noodles. I have a simple manually operated one. Nothing fancy, but still makes working the dough incredibly easier and faster.
I also suggest you make yourself a rack of some sort to hang the noodles and pasta sheets on. I made one using string and a wooden curtain pole i picked up at a shop.

For cooking fresh pasta, be careful cause it is very fast. You want it just barely undercooked (al dente). For this pasta it took under a minute. Literally seconds, so dont wander too far from the pot. When it floats to the surface, its almost done.

For keeping, fresh pasta can be frozen and kept for a very long time. Or it can be refrigerated or dried. Ive tried refrigerating the unprocessed ball of dough, but had bad experiences trying to do anything with it later on. Its better to process fresh dough right away.