Nonettes with orange jam from “À la Mère de Famille”

It’s week 3 of the #missgingerishchallenge and I actually start to like it! It also goes easier than I expected; seeing your pictures is really motivating so please continue with dusting off your cookbooks, cooking and sharing ;-).

After a salad from Leon and a delicious fish dish from “Gizzi’s Kitchen Magic”, this week I chose to go for a real challenge: I cooked from “à la mère de famille”; cookbook of the mythical Parisian chocolatier. The shop has been around since 1761, and is undoubtedly one of the best French patisseries. Officially, I once gave this book to Mr G. as a gift because as you may know baking is not my forte… However, “à la mère de famille” could be called the perfect cookbook: what is nicer and better than making your own chocolates, jam, cookies and candy? So challenge taken!

In 1761 a young grocer opened a store in Paris, which over time would evolve from grocery to a sweet paradise full of chocolate, cakes, cookies and candies. In the cookbook, which was made on the occasion of the 250th anniversary, the secrets of Paris’ oldest patisserie are revealed. Next to the most delicious recipes there are bits of history and interviews with a number of regular customers (fun!). The cookbook has a lot of pretty food pictures, as well as (old) photos of the store. Even the cover is worth to mention: it’s printed in relief and inspired by the facade of the store in Paris. The recipe index is a bit messy because it is not in alphabetical order, but probably you will see each and every page of this cookbook anyway ;-).

The book is divided into eight chapters: cakes & pastries, recipes of the chocolatier, recipes of the confectioner, candied fruits, jams and other spreads, cookies, ice cream and syrups. Think: marshmallows, chocolate bars, lemon cookies and sundae ice cream. Next to the recipes also professional explanations about the different techniques of the pastry chef, for example tempering chocolate. There are plenty of recipes for the slightly more experienced home bakers among us but certainly enough for beginners like me too. And I must say that the bake off virus got me too when my chosen recipe came out of the oven perfectly…. Another successful #missgingerishchallenge I would say!

If you’re hoping on a gluten or sugar free recipe then I must disappoint you: “à la mère de famille” recipes are being made for generations. I chose “nonettes”: cakes that used to be made by nuns. They are delicious soft cakes with a honey taste, with a fruity filling of jam. I used homemade orange chia marmalade but you can actually use any kind of jam. And the best thing about this recipe: even if you don’t bake that often, you will probably have the listed ingredients already in stock. And the nonettes are ready in just half an hour: easy peasy!

Nonettes with orange marmalade

Makes 10 pieces

Ingredients

• 137 gr flour
• 6 gr baking powder
• 60 gr sugar
• 100 gr milk
• 100 gr honey
• 37 gr melted butter
• 100 gr orange jam (or jam of your choice)
• 10 gr of water
• 25 gr icing sugar
• A muffin tin

instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees
2. Mix flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl
3. Heat the milk in a saucepan with a thick bottom and melt the honey in it (the milk must not boil)
4. Pour the milk-honey mixture to the flour in the bowl and add the melted butter
5. Grease the muffin tin
6. Pour about 40 grams batter in each pocket
7. Spoon half tablespoon of jam in the centre of each batter(if your jam is too thin, you will first need to boil it down a bit)
8. Bake the nonettes for 15 minutes in preheated oven, the jam will sink to the middle of the cakes during baking
9. Make glaze by mixing water well with powdered sugar
10. After 15 minutes brush each nonette with a little glaze and put in the oven at 170 degrees for another 2 minutes

And then: patience… Cool the nonettes before removing from the muffin tin. Take a bite and taste the delicious sweet and soft honey cake… Yummy!

Want to join?

Do you recognize that pile of cookbooks you hardly ever use? Then join me in this challenge, let’s put our cookbooks to use!

How does it work? It’s really simple: pick a cookbook from your shelf and cook a recipe from it. Share a picture of the dish you’ve created on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter with the hash tag #missgingerishchallenge and tag @missgingerish.

Of course don’t forget to mention the cookbook and name of the recipe: let’s spread the word and inspire others!

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