I heart Madeleines

Madeleine.
A lovely name to match them lovely little tea cakes.
It's perhaps a bit too early but I've already decided that if/when I have a daughter, I'm going to call her Madeleine. ;)

Up until the start of this year, I have never even tasted a madeleine. I've seen plenty of them, read about them and drooled over them but I've never really tasted them. The excuse used to be, "I haven't got a madeleine pan. Can't make one without a madeleine pan, that's just wrong".

Then it became, "What do you mean I have to leave it in the fridge to sit for 8hours!".

And eventually, when I finally got my fat arse into the kitchen to make them, it became.. "OMG.. why did I ever put off making these little cakes"

I have made madeleines 5 times since January when I finally got me a madeleine pan. 5 times and not once did they end up on this blog. Why not? you ask...

There are various reasons, but mostly because we just can't resist them! Alv and I would stuff one after another in our gobs and even when I've put away some for blogging, they would disappear when I get to them. So this time, I quickly declared that THEY WERE NOT TO BE CONSUMED until after I was done with them (for the blog you see.. all for sake of the blog).

There are plenty of madeleine recipes around, even ones that doesn't require sitting the dough overnight (just 30mins - 1hr) before baking them. But this is the one recipe that I keep going back to, even though there are at least 3 other recipes in the my ever increasing collection of cookbooks.

I no longer find the 8hr waiting period troublesome because it now means that I can prepare the dough mixture on Friday night, stick it in the fridge overnight and have freshly baked madeleines ready by lunch time Saturday. Mmmm.. who needs lunch when you have madeleines :)

Honey Madeleines
*adapted from this book

170g unsalted butter
4 large eggs
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 tbsp firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup full flavour honey (chestnut or any wildflower variety)
1.5 cup plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

*extra butter for greasing

1. Make brown butter by melting butter in a saucepan and cooking it until milk solids fall to the bottom and it turns rich hazelnut brown. Set aside and let it cool until room temperature.
2. In a large bowl beat eggs, caster sugar, brown sugar and honey until pale and foamy.
3. Sift flour, baking powder and salt and fold into the batter.
4. Fold in brown butter.
5. Cover and leave in the fridge for at least 8 hours. (At this point I generally just stick it in the fridge and go to bed)
6. Preheat oven to 180deg and grease your madeleine pans with melted butter.
   
7. Fill in madeleine pans about 1/2 or 3/4 full. Don't over fill or this will cause the batter to overflow during cooking and your madeleines will end up sticking together.
8. Bake in the oven for about 8 to 10mins until the bumps rise.
9. Remove from oven and let cool for about 5mins before removing them from the pan and repeating the process with the remaining batter.

Here's a chocolate variation of the above.

Chocolate Madeleines
*adapted from the above recipe

170g unsalted butter
4 large eggs
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 tbsp dutch cocoa powder
1.5 cup plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

*extra butter for greasing

1. Make brown butter by melting butter in a saucepan and cooking it until milk solids fall to the bottom and it turns rich hazelnut brown. Set aside and let it cool until room temperature.
2. In a large bowl beat eggs, caster sugar and brown sugar until pale and foamy.
3. Sift flour, baking powder and salt and fold into the batter.
4. Fold in cocoa powder, followed by brown butter.
5. Cover and leave in the fridge for at least 8 hours.
   
6. Preheat oven to 180deg and grease your madeleine pans with melted butter.
   
7. Fill in madeleine pans about 1/2 or 3/4 full. Don't over fill or this will cause the batter to overflow during cooking and your madeleines will end up sticking together.
8. Bake in the oven for about 8 to 10mins until the bumps rise.
9. Remove from oven and let cool for about 5mins before removing them from the pan and repeating the process with the remaining batter.

Served with your favourite cup of coffee/tea and tuck into your favourite book. Ahh.. paradise :)