French

More Madeleines

7/03/2007 04:05:00 PM


And now we come to my favourite madeleine recipe, so far. The recipe comes from France's justifiably famous Roux Brothers' book, The Roux Brothers on Patisserie. This is a much read, occasionally used book of mine, which my parents bought for me when I was just old enough to enjoy reading cookbooks, but still unable to produce anything exceptional. My brother and I affectionately referred to the book as the "Happy Chef, Sad Chef Book". Click on the Amazon page to see why. However, it is a font of knowledge and excellent recipes, and one which I plan to turn to much more often. If you can't rely on un des Meilleurs Ouvriers de France, Pâtissier-Confiseur for a good madeleine recipe, who can you rely on?

Their recipe for madeleines au miel (honey madeleines) is much simpler than the others I've used - no electric mixing is required, and the batter only needs to rest for half an hour. It's just a case of mixing some eggs with sugar, then folding through flour and baking powder, followed by honey and melted butter. After 30 minutes resting, they can be piped into buttered madeleine trays, (you know I used a spoon), and then baked. Et voila. They were lighter and crunchier than the other madeleines I've tried, and had a great delicate flavour. This time I also managed to get that humped shape that some madeleines have.


The brothers suggest dipping the cooled madeleines in melted couverture chocolate if you wish 'to gild the lily'. I am happy to report it is, indeed, a fabulous idea.

Madeleines au Miel
Honey Madeleines

Ingredients

2 x 60-70g eggs
75g sugar
1 tbsp dark soft brown sugar
Small pinch of salt
90g flour
1 tsp baking powder
Vanilla essence (optional)
90g melted butter, cooled
1 tbsp clear honey
30g melted butter, cooled, for greasing.

Method

Preheat the oven to 200C.
Combine the eggs, both kinds of sugar and the salt in a bowl and work lightly with a spatula until the mixture begins to turn light in colour. Sift together the flour and baking powder and fold them gently into the mixture, together with the vanilla, if you are using it. Do not overwork the mixture.
Lastly, pour in the cooled melted butter and the honey and mix until completely amalgamated. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave to rest in a cool place for about 30 minutes.

Brush the insides of the madeleine tray with melted butter.
Pipe the mixture into the cavities in the tray, forming it into evenly-shaped domes.
Bake in the preheated oven for about 5 minutes for the small madeleines and 10 minutes for the larger ones. On no account overcook them, or they will not be moist.
As soon as they are cooked, invert the tray directly onto a wire rack. Be careful not to let the tray fall directly onto the madeleines, or it will crush them.
Serve the madeleines just as they are when they have barely cooled; they are sheer perfection.

If you want to gild the lily, you can dip either the top or the base of the madeleines in plain chocolate couverture or melted chocolate; leave to cool completely before serving.


Makes 14 large or 40 small madeleines.

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6 comments

  1. They look lovely - especially with the chocolate!

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  2. Beautiful!!!!! (Impressive bumps.)

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  3. Sarrrrrraaahh.. post more often :P

    and let me know when you wanna cook me some food

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  4. Yum! They look great!

    paola

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  5. Wow! The madeleine queen is what you are!
    xx

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  6. My goodness Sarah, they look so lovely I had to try them myself, (thanks for posting the recipe too!) but mine look terrible compared to yours!

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