madeleines

Noun

madeleine (plural madeleines)

1. A French type of small gateau or sponge cake, often shaped like an elongated scallop shell.
   • And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray […] my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane.1981, C. K. Scott Moncrieff, Terence Kilmartin, transl., Swann's Way (In Search of Lost Time), Folio Society, translation of original by Marcel Proust, published 2005, page 44
2. (figuratively) Something which brings back a memory; a source of nostalgia or evocative memories.
   • The Robe was thus fixed in my mind as a symbol, and in my memory as a madeleine, of Jewish evil.2001, James Carroll, Constantine's Sword, Houghton-Mifflin, page 223

See all 3 meanings of madeleine