French Madeleines

Posted by Kejia:

Okay, I have to admit. I've been searching for simple recipes again. I really am a sucker for that. This time round, I found a recipe for French Madeleines. It looked so simple, I almost couldn't believe it! Originally, I thought that the batter had to be refrigerated overnight, but this recipe didn't call for that. It was a straight-up one whisk one bowl, immediate bake. I had all of the ingredients at home(I'm sure you would too), except for the lemon, so I easily replaced it with orange zest. :-)

I do believe that if the batter is refrigerated, the madeleines would turn out better, but the madeleines that this recipe produced did not disappoint. Fresh out of the oven, the crisp exterior of this madeleine is broken, revealing a moist tender interior of sponge cake with hints of orange. They should be eaten hot and fresh, and boy did they taste good. I went ahead and added a dash of vanilla bean paste and that really enhanced the subtle flavour of the orange zest.

Recipe adapted from Patricia Wells

Ingredients:

1/2 cup(113g) butter, melted and cooled

1/2 cup(112g) sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

Zest of 1 lemon/orange

1 cup(110g) flour, sifted

(Optional) Icing sugar for dusting

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 190ºC/375ºF. 

2. Combine sugar, eggs, lemon zest and vanilla bean paste until well blended. Slowly add the cooled, melted butter.

3. Fold in flour, until just incorporated. 

4. Fill madeleine molds 2/3 full. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from pan, let cool, then dust with icing sugar. 

These were so surprisingly easy to make! The entire process took me only about 1.5 hours. This recipe produced about 20 madeleines for me. :-) Do give it a try!

Love,

Kejia