Madeleines

 Welcome back! 

Today, we have another classic French dessert: the Madeleine! These are instantly recognizable by their distinct shell shape, and they are very popular! The texture is like that of a sponge cake, though it seems to be a little denser, like the Financier, which is actually a similar dish, though the procedure varies quite a bit. What's most interesting is all the legends surrounding the origin of the dish; it has a long history and there's a lot of mystery behind it...

Madeleines

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 150 grams cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 150 grams butter, melted and cooled to room temperature

Flavoring ingredients (pick one)

• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Zest from 1 lemon
• Zest from 1 orange

Directions:

1. In a bowl, crack in the eggs and whisk using an electric mixer, slowly adding in the sugar, until the mixture is pale and thick. This will take about 4 minutes.
   
2. Add the honey and mix.
3. Sift in the cake flour and baking powder and mix it thoroughly.
4. Add in one of the flavoring ingredients and mix it in.
5. Add in the butter and mix it in. Make sure it is at room temperature before adding it in.
6. Cover the batter with plastic wrap so that the wrap is touching the top of the batter. Place the bowl in the fridge for at least 3 hours, but preferably over 6 hours.
   
   
   
7. Take your madeleine pan and grease it with some melted butter. Also lightly coat the pan with flour. Place this pan in the fridge too.
   
   
   
8. Preheat the oven to 425°F.
9. Once everything is properly chilled, take the batter and pan out. Pour the batter into the molds in the pan.
   
   
   
10. Turn the temperature down to 375°F and bake for for 10-12 minutes.
    
    
    

    

    When they're flipped over...

    
    

    

    ...look at that color difference!

    
    

Note: We uses two different madeleine molds, as you can see, and the darker one heated up faster, so despite having baked those madeleines for two minutes less than the other ones, they still turned out darker. So, when you're baking, you need to check up on the madeleines to make sure that they're the right color that you want.

Madeleines are traditionally made with an almond flavor, but a very common variation involves lemon zest. We used lemon extract here to get this flavor, and it works well to get the same taste as lemon zest. They are really quite convenient as a snack, and the shape of the madeleine makes it as visually appealing as it is delicious!

-Chefpo