Madeleines

Madelelines are a very traditional French cookie that are baked in a special tray that gives them a distinctive sea shell shape. Actually, the flavor and texture of  Madeleine will probably remind you more of a pound cake or sponge cake rather than a cookie. I've always wanted to make these mini cakes for myself at home but I never got around to buying a Madeleine tray until a few weeks ago. Other than needing the specific tray to bake the madeleines in, they're incredibly easy to make and are really delicious. They're a perfect cookie to accompany a freshly brewed cup of tea or coffee at the end of a long day.

1 stick of butter (Melted and cooled)
2/3 cups of granulated Sugar
3 eggs
The zest of one Lemon
1 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract

¼ teaspoons of kosher salt

¼ cup of cornstarch

1 cup of flour 

½ teaspoon of of baking powder

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees 

Using an electric mixer, add the sugar and the lemon zest together and mix on low speed for about two minutes. I found this step helps get the oils from the lemon zest into the sugar and gives the Madeleines just a little more lemony flavor. Of course the lemon zest can be omitted entirely if you're not a fan of lemon. Now to the sugar, add the vanilla extract and the 3 eggs and beat together on medium speed for about 5 minutes. After time is up, the mixture should light yellow and color and have a fluffy and airy consistency.

Add the melted and cooled butter into the mixture and mix just until it's been incorporated with the eggs and sugar. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, the cornstarch, and the baking powder together. We're sifting the dry ingredients together to ensure we won't have any clumps of flour or corn starch in our batter. Finally, add the dry ingredients and the salt to the batter and mix together until the batter forms. It will be fairly thick and "cake like".

Take your madeleine tray and grease with some softened butter. If you're using a madeleine tray that doesn't have a non-stick coating you'll also want to dust the tray with a little bit of flour to ensure the cookies come out of the tray once they're baked. A little tip here - don't use a cooking spray. I did with my first batch and the bubbles left from the spray ruined the shape and presentation of the madeleines. Use a regular table spoon to scoop the batter into the shells on your tray, don't fill much more than half full as the batter will fill out the rest.

Bake the madeleines for about 8 to 10 minutes depending on what size tray you have. Some madeleline trays have large shell shapes to them while others are smaller. You can also tell that they're done when the back of the cookies spring back when you gently apply pressure to them. Turn the tray out onto a sheet lined with wax or parchment paper and allow them to cool a bit. Dust them with powdered sugar if desired. This recipe should yield about 2 dozen madelelines.

madeleines

madeleines