25 March 2014
Welcome friends. About a year ago I set a goal for myself to learn how to make madeleines. So I purchased a couple of pans at a specialty store on New Year's eve. When I got home, I discovered that I had several recipes but not all of the ingredients, and I didn't want to go back out. I decided to do a little research on-line before attempting to make the cookies. There are some amusing Madeleine tutorials and countless references to Marcel Proust (who mentions them in
If you have never had a Madeleine, they are more like a small tea cake than a cookie. You need special pans to give them their iconic seashell shape. Some of the on-line videos insisted on beating the eggs for a long time, but others suggested that you just give everything a quick stir.
One of my favorite dessert cookbooks had a great story about how the author was going to start a business baking Madeleines, but it didn't work out, so she just made them for her daughter's birthday party. I liked her story so much that I decided to try the recipe, and her Madeleine recipe was even better than her story. The recipe comes from
I like to serve Madeleines as a dessert with fresh fruit or homemade sorbet and they are also good with a cup of tea. The cookies only last for a couple of days, and the batter needs to be refrigerated for at least an hour before the cookies are baked. Chilling the batter produces plump cookies with a small hump, so don't skip this step.
Madeleines
40 min. prep time | 1 hr chill time | 12 min. bake time
Ingredients
makes about 24
- 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, browned
- 2 large eggs
- 2 egg whites
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 Tbsp honey
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup confectioners' sugar
- pinch fine sea salt
Directions
place the butter in a small sauce pan and melt over medium heat. Once the butter begins to boil, stir constantly and continue to cook over medium heat. The milk solids in the butter will begin to brown in the bottom of the pan, and you will notice a nutty aroma. This should take about 5 minutes from the time the butter begins to boil. Remove from heat and allow to cool for ½ hour.
place a large mesh strainer in a medium bowl and add the flour, confectioners’ sugar, and salt to the strainer. Hold the strainer above the bowl and lightly tap the sides of the strainer until the everything has passed through.
whisk together the eggs, sugar, honey, and vanilla in a large bowl, just until combined. Add in the dry ingredients and whisk until they are incorporated. Finally, add the cooled browned butter and whisk until the batter is smooth.
cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour or over night. The batter will be runny, at this point, but it will thicken as it chills.
preheat the oven to 375° F when you are ready to make the cookies.
spray the mold with cooking spray. Add 1 tablespoon of batter in the center of each mold. They will expand quite a bit as they bake. Bake one pan at a time. Refrigerate the remaining batter while this pan of cookies bakes.
bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the center is firm and the edges are a light golden brown. A small hump will form in the center of each cookie as it bakes.
remove the cookies from the molds by turning the pan over above a wire rack and giving it a shake. You can use the back of a spoon to coax out any cookies that stick to the pan. Allow the pan cool for 10 minutes before using it again, and check to see that there are no crumbs in the molds.