Ingredients
- 4 1/2 ounces sugar
- 3 3/4 ounces all-purpose flour, sifted
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- Zest of 1 orange
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 3 1/4 ounces unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
- Butter and flour for molds
Method
- Combine the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt in a medium mixing bowl, stirring with a wooden spoon to blend. Add the zest. Stir in the eggs, mixing just to combine. You do not want to incorporate too much air into the batter. Finally, stir in the butter.
- Cover the bowl with plastic film and refrigerate for 1 hour, or until well chilled. The chilling is important, as it makes the batter easier to pipe and ensures a higher rise during baking. At this point, the batter may be stored, covered and refrigerated, for up to 4 days.
- Butter and flour the madeleine molds.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Immediately transfer the batter to a pastry bag fitting with a #5 plain tip and pipe into the prepared molds. Bake the madeleines for about 7 minutes (about 11 minutes for larger cakes), or until the cakes spring back in the center when lightly touched.
As you can see, the ingredients are not complicated - melted and coold butter, orange zest, 2 eggs, sugar, flour, salt and baking powder. I followed the recipe exactly so it would be ridiculous for me to recount this in great detail. I baked my madaleines for roughly 10 minutes (checked after 8.) They got VERY brown on the bottom (not a bad thing at all!) and they have such crispy brown edges! These came out so well. So cakey and moist in the middle. I used a large orange to get my zest and I was so glad I did - the orange flavor is perfect - not too much but makes it very citrusy and light!
I have also used grapefruit, lemon and lime zest for flavoring and they are also fantastic. I recently chopped a Macintosh apple very finely and tossed that in the batter - tasty, but it (obviously) made the batter a bit wetter than usual and the flavor may have been to subtle. If I cut down on the butter a bit and perhaps add a tiny bit of cinnamon to the batter, I might really have something here!
ReplyDeleteI no longer bother piping these into the molds - I use a cookie disher to plop the batter into the buttered and floured molds and use a spoon ( ... or my finger ...) to settle it into the molds ... the results are identical to the piping method for me at least! One less fussy step which makes me more likely to make them!
ReplyDeleteAdd 6g of matcha powder instead of other flavorings for green tea madeleines
ReplyDelete