I don’t know what is about madeleines but they always transport me to some gorgeous French cafe where I’m sitting outside with a very small strong black coffee, eating these delicious small sponge cakes and enjoying the warm summer breeze.
While you could argue I have an overactive imagination, (I won’t stop you, I do!) I’m not a million miles away from the truth. Madeleines are French. It is a traditional small cake from Commercy and Liverdun, two communes of the Lorraine region in northeastern France .
These gorgeous mini cakes are so versatile and can be flavoured with rosewater as in this recipe, almonds, lemon zest, lavender, earl grey tea or even just vanilla. I have tried all these flavours (purely for research of course) and I couldn’t tell which one was my favourite because they really are all so good. However as this recipe is for the rosewater Madeleines I will say there is something rather special about its delicate flavour complimented by the sweet dusting of icing sugar.
My only warning about these petité delights are that they are ridiculously addictive.
Enjoy. Xx
Rosewater Madeleines
Ingredients
50g unsalted butter
45g italian 00 flour
1 tablespoon of rosewater
1 large egg
40g caster sugar
Pinch of salt
Icing sugar
Method
First melt the butter slowly and then leave to cool.
With an electric mixer or whisk beat the egg, caster sugar and salt until you get it nice and thick, or at the ribbon stage. This simply means that the mixture is thick enough for the beaters to leave a trail (or ribbon) of the batter on top of the mixture. you should be able to write the figure ‘8’ with the ribbon before it sinks back into the mixture. I generally aim for the thickness of hollandaise sauce or even mayonnaise.
Then using a sieve sprinkle in the flour. Fold in the flour with a wooden spoon then add the melted cold butter and rosewater. Mix well but not too vigorously. This is because we are in fact making a genoise batter. Instead of using chemical leavening, air is suspended in the batter during mixing to provide volume.
You then need to leave the batter mixture to rest in the fridge for an hour. I also call this making a cup of tea time. Once your hour has past take it out of the fridge and leave it get back up to room temperature for half an hour.
Preheat the oven to 220°c of 200 on a fan assisted oven.
Brush the Madeline tin with butter. Be generous. It makes them easier to pop out of the tin once cooked.
Now I used a 12 bun Madeleine tin and I used up all the batter but if you have a mini one just don’t put as much mixture in each mould. 1 tablespoon of cake mixture should be enough for each mould. Remember the heat of the oven will spread the mixture.
Bake for 3 to 5 minutes. Yes it really is that quick!! Once baked, turn out and let them cool on a rack. Dust with icing sugar and enjoy.
Sharing is optional.
TractorLadyDoesFood 