Happy Friday everyone!
Welcome back for Week 15! This week, we moved into a new chapter – Cupcakes and Other Small Bakes! On the baking agenda: French madeleines! If you’re not familiar with them, French madeleines are small, seashell-shaped treats with a cakey texture and are typically eaten as a tea time snack. They can be served plain or dipped in chocolate.
I’ve actually never eaten French madeleines myself, but I’ve always been interested in trying to make them! I thought the recipe was a really technical one, but it’s actually pretty simple!
Before we get started, I’d like to point out that there are two common types of madeleines – French and English. The English madeleines are made in “dariole molds” (which essentially look like really deep muffin pans), and are covered in raspberry jam and coconut. So, if you’re planning on making madeleines, make sure you have the right recipe for what you want!
French Madelines VS English Madeleine
For this recipe, I did have to buy a few “madeleine tins” that are specifically molded for that fun seashell look. I found a two-pack on Amazon here. Make sure to grease them thoroughly before adding the batter to make sure they come out easily after baking.
This recipe is pretty simple, considering it only has six ingredients and four steps. The first thing you have to do is whisk eggs and sugar until “pale and thick.” It doesn’t explain how thick it’s supposed to be, so I whisked it on high until it was just shy of having stiff peaks when I took the whisk out.
After the egg mixture is ready, you have to alternate between adding half the flour (plus baking powder and grated lemon rind) and butter and… ugh, folding… them in to the egg mixture. After I poured the first half of butter in and started folding, it looked as if there was going to be way too much butter and it was pooling at the bottom without incorporating. I did the best I could, then added the other halves of butter and flour, and it all magically mixed together. I don’t know what happened to make the butter mix in all of a sudden, but if something goes right, I don’t question it, ha-ha!
The recipe claims to make about 30 madeleines, but I think I overfilled the molds slightly, because I was only able to get 20 out of the batter I had. The batter had a really nice, sweet, lemon-y flavor and was the consistency of a thick cake batter.
Instead of cooking them for 8-10 minutes as the recipe says, I put them in for 6 minutes, and they were already done! They probably could’ve been left in for a minute longer to get a darker color, but the edges of some were starting to get a little too dark, so I just took them out. They did unfortunately sink a little bit in the middle, but you serve them upside-down anyways, so that’s okay for now, ha-ha! Next time, I’ll decrease the amount of baking powder and see if that helps.
Overall, I’d give this recipe a 5/5!! These were extremely easy to make, and they taste great! They had a nice, fluffy, cake-y texture, with a nicely balanced lemon-y flavor. Like I said above, it only requires six ingredients (almost all of which you probably already have in your kitchen) and it took me less than an hour to make! Next time, I’d definitely try them drizzled or dipped in white or milk chocolate to add some extra oomph, but they're really fantastic just on their own!
I would highly recommend this recipe to anyone making a dessert for a party, get-together, or just to eat them at home! This is definitely one of my favorite bakes yet!
Due to most of the recipes in the Cupcakes and Other Small Bakes chapter being cupcakes or muffins – which I’ve made before – this is the only recipe I’m going to make before moving on next week to another new chapter!
That’s it for week 15, the French madeleines! Thank you for following along with me, and, again, if you have any questions, feel free to use the “Get in Touch” feature on my “About Me” page and subscribe to get updates on posts!
See you next week!
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