Rewind: Crispy-Topped Brown Sugar Bars

I'm a conscientious person and love to bake, so how come I am already needing to "catch up" with baking through Baking Chez Moi?  Two weeks ago I had an unexpected illness that threw me into the hospital.  I was really sick.  The crisis is over and I'm slowly regaining energy and stamina.  When I'm not sleeping, I'm resting, and this has been frustrating since I'm ordinarily an active person.  Fortunately, my family has taken up the slack and my good friend Roberta gave me her best "mother advice":  Don't, don't overdo anything! Don't go bake any cookies or anything!! Just take it easy.

I took Roberta's advice for as long as I could, but today I did bake.  It was great to be back in the kitchen and happily, these bars are easy to make.

I heeded the advice of those who wrote in on the Tuesday Chatter and decided to bake the crust for a shorter time than Dorie suggests.  After 13 minutes, my crust was puffy and reasonably golden so I pulled it out, put on the chocolate, and back in the oven.  

I had attempted the caramelized Rice Krispies yesterday.  My energy was low and I didn't stir them quite as vigorously as I should have, and they turned out a little clumpy but good enough.

The sugar starting to burble

The verdict of my family is that these are quite tasty.  And I'm so  glad to have had enough energy to bake them--even though I'm a week late.

One happy little treat

Lemon Madeleines

Every cookie has its place and time and madeleines want to be eaten right away with tea or coffee.   These lovely lemon madeleines with their lemony glaze are especially yummy with tea.

This is a straight-forward recipe found in Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi on page 212.  The ones I baked yesterday didn't get the "bump" that some Madeleines have but I still have some batter left and will try again today!  (My madeleine pan only has 9 molds so it takes a bit of time to bake them since you have to leave them in the fridge for at least an hour.)  If I'm successful with the bump, I'll edit this post---

Adding the glaze

Out of the oven with the glaze happily melted

Pretty and delicious!