madeleine

madeleine (small gateau in the shape of a scallop shell); madeleine (something which brings back a memory)

“Et bientôt, machinalement, accablé par la morne journée et la perspective d’un triste lendemain, je portai à mes lèvres une cuillerée du thé où j’avais laissé s’amollir un morceau de madeleine.” — And soon, mechanically, weary after a dull day with the prospect of a depressing morrow, I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake.

From earlier gâteau à la Madeleine, after the given name Madeleine (“Magdalene”), of uncertain reference: see more above.