A tale of two best friends on opposite sides of the world and their quest to cook everything from
Stephanie Alexander's 'The Cook's Companion'

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Madeleines

Madeleines

Madeleines are something that I had never eaten before, but just knew I would love. On our trip to Paris, I made a special detour to a cooking store just to pick up a madeleine tin. I liked the idea of getting the tin in Paris for the quintessential French cake. A madeleine however, is not quite a cake, not quite a biscuit...it's somewhere in the middle. Made of sponge batter, the cakes are pillowy soft on the inside with a nice crisp outside.

Madeleines

For my first attempt, these turned out pretty well and a few of them even got the nice dome on the tops. I think they could probably have been a little lighter in texture, so next time I will whisk the eggs a bit longer. The honey flavour was very light and I had to really think about it to be able to taste it. I'm looking forward to making many, many more of these.

Honey Madeleines (Printable Recipe)
adapted from Stephanie's Honey Madeleines, pg 498
makes 20 - 24 regular madeleines

90g butter, plus 20g extra for coating the tin
1/2 tbsp honey
2 eggs
1/3 cup castor sugar
1 tbsp brown sugar
tiny pinch salt
90g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder

Melt the 90g butter in a saucepan with the honey over low heat. While the butter is cooling, combine eggs, sugars and salt in a bowl, whisking until light and foamy. Sift in flour and baking powder, whisking gently to combine. Finally, gently incorporate the cooled butter mixture. Allow to rest for 1 hour, or overnight.

Madeleines

Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced). Gently melt 20g butter in a saucepan and generously brush the madeleine tray. Dust with flour and shake off any excess. Spoon in batter to fill shells by 1/2 - 2/3. I filled them closer to 2/3 and got 20 Madeleines out of the mixture.

Bake for about 10 mins, until nice and golden on the edges. I rotated my tin halfway, so they browned evenly. Remove from the oven and tap the tray on the workbench to loosen the Madeleines. Cool on a wire rack with the shell side up.

Madeleines

These are delicious dunked in tea or milk. Given that hubby and I ate the lot in about 10 minutes, attests to their yumminess. I did feel a bit ill later, but that's hardly surprising.

5 comments:

Penny Wolf said...

I can't help but remark on your dishes! I LOVE them and I normally could care less about patterns etc.
but those are speaking to me. Forgive me as I'm sure your cakes are a delight.

Anonymous said...

I bought myself a mini madeleine pan after finding this recipe and had a blast making them! However, instead of getting 20 madeleines, I got 70! Good thing my family has a sweet tooth and loves tea time!

Patricia Scarpin said...

These are so pretty! Lovely!

Anonymous said...

Wow, this looks so delicious and yet so easy to make! My only problem is that i don't have any access to a madeleine pan, can i just put them on a baking paper or should i find something similar to the pan?

Abby said...

The batter is too runny to pour out onto a baking tray, but I have seen people lay spoons onto a baking tray and pour the batter into the spoons. You could also use a patty cake tin.