29 March 2023

French Cuisine – Madeleines

Back to a sweet recipe this week. I want to share with you a recipe of a French classic: madeleines! Today we are talking about the traditional version of madeleines. The real ones. The original ones. No added flavors, no chocolate or lemon. The simple recipe that immediately brings you back to childhood (at least french childhood ^^). I have made flat madeleines for a long time, they were good. I was thinking: it’s homemade, it’s better. But now that I have a recipe that makes madeleines with a nice bump, I adopted it. I found this recipe in the cookbook “Let’s eat France“. It is from a radio program I’m following and love since years. If you want to practice some French don’t hesitate to listen to it. I have followed their recipe, just adjusting cooking time for my oven and I’m really pleased with the result.

The good taste of butter is there, the soft texture too. You can keep them for a few days in a airtight container, but not for weeks either! I’m okay with this as my Mini eats them by 5 so no problem for the conservation…! Of course they are even better on the baking day.

In short, this is a classic that I wanted to be on the blog, to come back to it whenever I want, even outside my home. Yes, because I remind you of the objective of this blog: to build myself a recipe book and share it with you. For this reason even the simple and effective classics must be included. And then also because the book “Let’s eat France” is rather heavy to lug around if I want to make madeleines outside my house…!!

French Madeleines

Prep Time15

Cook Time11

Resting time2

Servings: 20 madeleines

Ingredients

2 eggs
100 g caster sugar
40 g milk
125 g white flour
5 g baking powder
140 g unsalted butter

Instructions

Whisk the eggs and sugar together.
Add the milk and whisk again.
Add the sifted flour and baking powder and mix well.
Finally add the warm melted butter. Mix well for the last time.
Leave the batter to rest for 2-3 hours in the fridge.
Preheat the oven at 210℃.
If you have a metal tin for madeleines, grease it with butter. If it is a silicon mould, not need to grease it. Pour the batter in the mould (see notes) and cook in the oven for 9 to 11 minutes (see notes).
Leave the madeleine to cool on a rack. Don't hesitate to try them warm 😉

Notes

Here are some tips for making your madeleines a success:

Do not overfill your molds, otherwise the batter will be too “heavy” to form a nice bump.
The cooking time is indicative, in my oven I leave them for 11 minutes, so adapt this time to your oven according to the color of your madeleines.
Opinions differ on the reason for the bump, I didn’t find any serious studies on it… BUT in my opinion, do not ignore the resting time of 2 to 3 hours! The cold/hot shock could help form the madeleine bump… At your own risk if you don’t follow the rules ;).

In the cookbook there is an icing that I chose not to make not to add sugar. But if you would like to make it, mix 120g of icing sugar and 30g of orange juice. You can then glaze the madeleines with a brush with this icing.

And here is an easy recipe for a snack for the little ones! I would recommend to follow the few little tips. I usually prepare the batter in the morning and then I leave it in the fridge until snack time, it’s quick to cook and the little ones are happy to see the bump forming in the oven: it’s magic!