Madeleines

As I was doing my food shopping the other day, I went past the biscuit and cake isle and then I saw them, the madeleines! Rushed with nostalgic memories of my childhood (they often featured as my 4pm snack) I decided to treat myself to a big bag of those golden soft delicious cakes. Love in bite size, that’s what they are! So when I ended up with a tasteless mush in my mouth, I was very disappointed to say the least! So it was decided, I would have to bake my own madeleines and try to recreate that taste I remembered so fondly.

Here is my recipe, and for some extra indulgence, I dipped them in chocolate and blitzed pistachios.

You will need (makes 48 small madeleines):

2 large eggs

50 mL of semi skimmed milk
120g of flour
120g of butter (I do not recommend switching for margarine)
100g of caster sugar
1 tsp of orange extract
Zest of 1 orange
Zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp of baking powder

Preparation:

     1.     Melt the butter slowly and let simmer until golden. Leave to cool.

2.     In the meantime beat the eggs and sugar with a whisk until they have increased in volume (2-3 min).

3.     Slowly whisk in the cooled butter. It is very important that your butter isn’t hot otherwise you will end up with sweet scrambled eggs!

4.      Add the milk, orange extract and the zests. Whisk until combined.

5.     Sift the flour and baking powder on top of that mixture and mix gently with a spatula until they are all incorporated. The mixture is quite liquid in consistency at this point.

6.    Put in the fridge and wait for a couple of hours. You will end up with a much thicker batter, perfect for piping.

7.     Brush your madeleine tray with melted butter and sift some flour on top. This step is very important for the madeleines to rise properly. Otherwise, your dough is going to stick to the tray. Pipe the dough into each holes, ¾ of the way up. Or if you haven't got a piping bag you can use a spoon. If you overfill the holes, your madeleines are going to rise and spread outside of their shells.

8.    Pop into a preheated oven at 200C for 10 min. And you’re done! Just take the madeleines out of the tray and leave to cool for 30 min. Now you can eat them!

If you are feeling particularly indulgent, melt some dark chocolate and dip the “scalloped” side of the madeleines in. Let the excess chocolate drip off and plunge the chocolate side on to crushed pistachios.