Walnut, Pear and Roquefort Madeleines

We are on week 18 of 50 Women Game Changers in Food. This week's lady of honor, Clotilde Dusoulier, is a blogger herself. I remember seeing her in an interview on the Today show back in 2007. She must have been about 25 at the time, her book Chocolate & Zucchini had just been released, and she explained how this all started with her blog of the same name. She started blogging about food when she returned to Paris after working as an engineer for 2 years in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is now a full time writer and has since then published a second book, Clotilde's Edible Adventures in Paris.

I must confess that I purchased her book the same week that I saw the interview but had not tried any of the recipes until now. These savory Madeleines are very easy to make and I found that they pair well with a nice Riesling (Disclaimer: I'm not a sommelier, just a personal suggestion).

Madeleinesau Roquefort, Poire & Noix
(Walnut, Pear and Roquefort Madeleines)
As it appears in Clotilde Dusoulier's Chocolate & Zucchini

Makes 24 madeleines

A pat ofunsalted butter for the molds

1 ¼ cupsall-purpose flour

1tablespoon baking powder

3 largeeggs

½teaspoon fine sea salt

½teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

½ cupbuttermilk or plain unsweetened yogurt

3 ouncesRoquefort or another blue cheese

1 ripepear, about 8 ounces, peeled, cored and diced

1/3 cupshelled walnuts, roughly chopped (not too fine)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter a tray of madeleine molds or mini-muffin tins.

2. Combineflour and baking powder in a small mixing bowl. In a medium mixing bowl, whiskthe eggs, salt and pepper. Add the oil, buttermilk and cheese, and whisk again.

3. Siftflour mixture into egg mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until incorporated— the batter will be thick. Don't overmix. Fold in pear and walnuts and stir.(The batter can be prepared up to a day ahead and refrigerated.) Spoon batterinto the molds, filling them by two thirds.

4. Bake 12 to 16 minutes, untilpuffy and golden. Transfer to a rack to cool for a few minutes, unmold andserve warm.

For additional dishes by Clotilde Dusoulier, please visit the wonderful ladies listed below. You'll love their blogs:

Val - More Than Burnt Toast
Joanne - Eats Well With Others
Taryn - Have Kitchen Will Feed
Susan - The Spice Garden
Claudia - A Seasonal Cook in Turkey
Heather - girlichef
Miranda - Mangoes and Chutney
Jeanette - Healthy Living
April - Abby Sweets
Katie - Making Michael Pollan Proud
Mary - One Perfect Bite
Kathleen -Bake Away with Me
Viola - The Life is Good Kitchen
Sue - The View from Great Island
Barbara - Movable Feasts
Kathleen - Gonna Want Seconds
Amy - Beloved Green
Jeanette - Healthy Living
Linda - Ciao Chow Linda
Linda A - There and Back Again
Martha - Lines from Linderhof