About Madeleine

The madeleine is a traditional small cake from France. Madeleines are very small sponge cakes with a distinctive shell-like shape acquired from being baked in pans with shell-shaped depressions.

These delicate and delicious little French butter cakes called Madeleines are light as air with a crisp edge and soft melt in your mouth crumb throughout. They’re scallop-shaped delights made complete with a light dusting of powdered sugar.

These delicate, buttery cakes will float right into your mouth and are the perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea or coffee.

Recipe details

• Preparation time: 20 min
• Resting time to chill: 1 hour
• Baking time: 10-12 minutes

Ingredients

• 100g Unsalted Butter (1 stick)
• 2 large Eggs at room temperature
• 100 g or 1/2 cup granulated Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Lemon Zest
• 1 teaspoon  Vanilla Essence
• 100 g or 1/2  cup+ 1tablespoon All-Purpose Flour(Maida)
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 pinch Salt
• Powdered Sugar as required for dusting

Method

Melt the butter in a small pot over medium low  heat until brown.

Browning the butter will add a lovely  flavour to the madeleines . Cook the butter until it takes on a caramel colour, stirring occasionally.

Once  browned pour the butter into a bowl and allow to cool. I added 1 tablespoon more soft butter to hot brown butter, as during browning some residue was left to the bottom of the pan.

Sift the flour, salt, and baking powder into a bowl then whisk together and set aside.

Add the eggs and sugar to a large mixing bowl .

Using an electric hand mixer, beat on high until the mixture is a light yellow color with a thick silky texture, about 8-9 minutes. You’ll see the beater leave trails when it’s ready.

You can use  your stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment also to make the batter.

Mix in the vanilla and lemon zest toward the end.

Fold in sifted flour mixture gently and in 2-3 batches. At this point it’s important to treat your batter with care as you don’t want to pop all the tiny bubbles that have been formed during whisking  eggs.

The batter should be smooth and flowing.

Pour  the melted butter into your batter and fold in until combined.

The final batter should be smooth and silky with flowing consistency.

Now cover the surface of the batter with plastic to avoid forming layer on the top.

Keep in the refrigerator for an hour to chill the batter.

Brush your Madeleine pans with butter. Place pans in the refrigerator to chill.

Preheat oven to 180 degree Centigrade.

Place chilled batter in each shell-shaped mould upto half filled.

If you don’t have Madeleine mould use small cup cake moulds.

Bake them at 180 degree Centigrade for about 10-12 minutes or until edges starts browning.

Allow to cool in pans for a few minutes before removing to cool completely. Dust the cooled cakes with powdered sugar if desired.

These Madeleines are light and airy cakes, not cookies. They’re best the day of but if you’re storing leftovers then make sure to seal them in an airtight container.

They are so light and airy.

TIPS FOR THIS RECIPE

Measure your flour correctly! Adding too much flour to the recipe is the most common mistake. So measure correctly and use flour in batches. If you fill that batter is getting thicker, stop adding flour.

In case you fill that batter is little thick, add 1 or 2 tablespoon of room temperature milk to adjust consistency.

Be gentle with your delicate batter. Fold flour gently so that air bubbles of the batter remain intact.

If your madeleines don’t have that characteristic hump on the back, they will still be scrumptious. So don’t stress about it.

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