Madeleines are small cakes that used to be sold at the train station of Commercy, France.
They are shell-shaped and convenient to eat without being messy.
I strongly recomme
Ingredients
- 150 g all purpose flour (just over 1 cup)
- 1 stick butter
- 150 g granulated sugar (just over 1/2 cup)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp baking powder
- zest of 1 lemon or 1 tsp vanilla extract
Tools
- mixing bowl
- microwave oven
- silicone Madeleine pans
Melt the butter for 1 minute in the microwave oven.
Beat the eggs and sugar together until it whitens (maybe a minute.)
Add baking powder then flour and butter (alternate adding a bit of flour and a bit of butter add the flavoring: lemon zest or vanilla.
Put the mixing bowl in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, preferably 2 hours or even overnight.
Preheat oven at 450F.
Spoon the batter ( i use a desert spoon and my pinkie) into the molds. You should have enough for a little over 18 madeleines (if you a make double batch and use 3 sheets of 18, it works well.)
Bake for about 5 minutes at 450F. Then lower the temperature to 350 for 45 more minutes. Check for color, if they look pale, leave them for another minute.
Some recipes omit the baking powder, you will have to beat the sugar and eggs for a lot longer and be careful when adding the flour and butter. Never tried.
You can split the batter in halves and flavor one side with vanilla the other with chocolate and spoon both in each mold.
Refrigerating the batter helps give a thermal shock to the madeleines so to stay moist and have the traditional hump.
When they are done, wait a few minutes for the molds to cool down a bit then put the Madeleines on a grille to cool down and dry a bit. Store in an air-tight container.