Madeleines
This delicious and beautiful french cookie goes by the name of Madeleines and is super simple to make. The only thing you need is a special madeleine baking tin.
Recipe for madeleines
It’s funny how you can be intrigued by something as soon as you see it. I probably saw madeleines first at one blog or the other. You know how that works when you’re browsing the internet right?
The origin of the madeleine has many different versions. As is usually the case with recipes that date back to hundreds of years ago. One story tells the tale of a Madeleine Palmier who made this delicacy for a Polish king. Another tells a tale of a maid with the name of Madeleine who baked the cakes in a scallop shell. Given it that unique look.
Baking your own
Now to be honest I don’t really care where they come from, but I do know I love baking them. You can find metal baking pans and you can find silicon ones. I’ve tried both but like the metal ones better as the cakes brown a little bit better around the edges. When using the silicon they stay more blond. Which is still ok, but I love those little crunchy edges and that works best when baked in metal. I used this particular madeleine pan.
Burned butter
When browsing the internet I saw a couple of times that the key to making good madeleines is using burned butter in the recipe. That is definitely an option but I’ve tried both with the burned butter and without. Not going the extra mile to brown the butter, didn’t really make a huge difference in the end result. So if you want to make them a little quicker, you can definitely make these without browning it. Just melt the butter, let it cool down somewhat and continue the process as outlined below.
If you’re a lover of cookies, try these delicious red velvet cookies as well!
Madeleines
Equipment
Ingredients
- 170 gr unsalted butter
- 2 tbsp softened unsalted butter for greasing pan
- 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 4 large eggs
- a pinch fine-grain sea salt
- 2/3 cups sugar
- zest of one large lemon
- seeds of one vanilla pod or vanilla extract
- powdered sugar
- a bit of extra flour for dusting baking pan
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 175 C
- Melt the butter in a small sauce pan on medium heat until it’s brown and starts to smell rather nutty. Do make sure that you don’t let it get burned as that…. is something you do not want! Once brown, strain the butter (you can use a paper towel over a mesh strainer) so that the solids are left behind. Cool the butter to room temperature. By doing the butter first you can complete the rest of the steps while it is cooling.
- While the melted butter is cooling, use the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter to grease the madeleine molds – get in there and make sure you get in all the ridges. Dust with flour and invert the pan tapping out any excess flour. Mine came out of the pan very easily.
- Put the eggs with the salt in the bowl of an electric mixer with a whisk attachment. Whip on high speed until thick – you are looking for the eggs to roughly double or triple in volume – approximately 3 minutes. Continuing to mix on high speed, slowly add the sugar in a steady stream. Whip for 2 minutes or until mixture is thick and ribbony. Now with a spatula fold in the lemon zest and vanilla (just until mixed).
- Sprinkle the flour on top of the egg batter, and gently fold in. Now fold in the butter mixture. Only stirring enough to bring everything together. You don’t want the butter to be too hot or it will work on your eggs.
- Spoon the batter into the molds, filling each mold 2/3 -3/4 full. I found that the batter becomes thick quite quickly. I had to bake in several batches as the mold only holds 12 madeleines. This recipe makes double that amount.
- Bake the madeleines for about 10-15 minutes depending on your oven. Make sure to check them from time to time. Once the edges turn golden remove from the oven and turn out onto a cooling rack immediately. Dust with icing sugar and serve. The madeleines are best eaten the day they are made.
Nutrition Information
Disclaimer
The nutritional values above are calculated per portion. The details are based on standard nutritional tables and do not constitute a professional nutritional advice.
Wow, they look perfect for this wintry, windy day… almost snowing here.
Queste madeleines hanno un aspetto delicato bellissimo, ciao
Lovely little madeleines! They look heavenly.
Cheers,
Rosa
I love madeleines and yours are so pretty. I also bought the pans at very cheap price but have not bake any madeleines yet. Thanks for reminding 🙂
They look fantastic Simone, and elegant, just as madelines are supposed to look. Its been “simmerning” in my head to make these pretty little things for a while too :-), but I do not have the pan and would not even mind an orange one right now. Love the nutty aroma of the browned butter.
“simmerning” = “simmering”
🙂
Your plain madeines look just wonderful!!!
Lovely madeleines home made by Simone,….!!! 🙂
Thet seem as delicious as the french
If you want you can put the dough in the fridge 30 minutes, they will be better! (it’s a french trick! =) )
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They look great Simone! I understand your quest to find kitchen supplies especially with baking!
Simone, they look light and dreamy! Is it time for coffee and madeleines yet?
Wow! These look simply stunning! Beautiful photos!
These look great and tasty 🙂
Ohh I love madeleines. They look just lovely.
They look so beautiful, Simone! And stunning pictures, as usual! Madeleines have always seemed intimidating to me, they’re such a classic. Well done!
Your madelienes are gorgeous Simone! I would love a few with a big mug of tea. Such lovely treats. I love buying new stuff for my kitchen too – especially baking stuff – it’s a sickness.
HH from http://www.fromdonutstodelerium.com My Life as a Housewife has a recipe for these that she says is one of the best things she has ever eaten in her entire life – and she is a madeleine fiend. Thought you might like to check it out!
These look divine. I love them. I need to make them more often!
And now, I have two recipes to try!
🙂
valerie
Gorgeous! I’d love for you to submit this to the M&T Spotlight at http://www.makeandtakes.com/spotlight. We’re featuring cookies this week and this kinda fits that description, right? 🙂
So delicate and beautiful!
I have been playing around with macarons and have finally posted a batch that came out. Then, I saw those Madeleine molds at Williams and Sonoma. My daughter is Madeleine and it was her birthday last week. I made them and they were lovely. I’ll be posting them in the next week. Your photos are wonderful. I am still learning. I came to your blog because of a link on foodgawkers. Thank you for the tips.