HOLIDAY BAKING
While down at the beach, I like to do a little holiday baking. This summer, I thought I’d try my hand at Madeleines. I’ve come up with these Vanilla Lemon Madeleines, and they’re super light, very fluffy and absolutely delicious!
I love being down at the beach, but now it’s even better, because I have a new kitchen! On top of the fact that my kitchen back at home is in desperate need of a renovation, with an oven that is only half working….it’s a dream baking down here!
So I decided to bring down some of my new pans, to give them some love that they deserve. I bought a beautiful madeleine pan from Williams Sanoma
The pan comes with a great recipe, but I did a little research, combined about 5 different recipes and came up with this….and it actually worked perfectly straight up!
VANILLA LEMON MADELEINES LOVE TO CHILL
One thing that seemed to be a recurring theme was the need to refrigerate the batter, to ensure beautifully fluffy madeleines. So chill away I did, for at least one hour.
Some recipes were vanilla, some were lemony, others had pistachio and saffron. I just wanted a nice light madeleine, so I chose a vanilla cake, with just a hint of lemon. I just love that zesty freshness -see some of my past posts like my Lemon Puddings and No-bake Lemon Slice for more delicious lemon recipes.
Every time I come to the beach house, I discover there’s something I’m missing….this time it was a pastry brush. It’s so important to grease the madeleine pan really well. There’s so many little edges and you want to make sure those delicious little cakes come out looking beautiful. So, with no pastry brush, I had to resort to using paper towel. Let’s just say I was really thorough!
TIPS ON MAKING THE BEST MADELEINES
- Use a great quality pan -the results are always worth the extra $$
- Give that batter a good hour to chill in the fridge if you want beautiful, fluffy madeleines
- Grease and flour every single little nook and cranny -dug out madeleines just don’t look that good!
- Beat the eggs and sugar for a good 5 minutes -you want that mix beautifully thick and fluffy
- Don’t overfill the cavities -a heaped teaspoon worked well. And don’t spread the mix -it will fill as it bakes
- After baking, let them cool for 10 minutes, before gently releasing them from the pan
Now because these gorgeous little French Vanilla Lemon Madeleines are so delicate and buttery, you’re going to have to eat them pretty much straight away. I know, it’s kinda tough! (I had some left over and ate one the following day and it was fine. Even I couldn’t eat them all in one day!). They’re super light, very fluffy and absolutely delicious! Perfect in the afternoon, with a cup of tea.
Vanilla Lemon Madeleines
Ingredients
- 2 Eggs
- 90 g Caster Sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
- 1 tsp Lemon Zest
- 75 g Plain Flour plus extra, for dusting the pan
- ½ tsp Baking Powder
- pinch Salt
- 60 g Butter melted and cooled, plus extra for greasing pan
- Icing Sugar to dust
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine eggs, sugar, lemon zest and vanilla
- Whisk on med-high speed for 5 minutes, until mixture is thick and fluffy
- Sift the flour, baking powder and salt over the egg mixture, then beat on low, until just combined
- Gently fold in the melted butter
- Cover and refrigerate mixture for at least an hour
- While mixture is chilling, heat oven to 180° celsius
- With the extra butter and flour, carefully grease the madeleine pan, getting into every crease. Sprinkle the pan with the extra flour, tipping the pan to ensure each surface is evenly coated. Tap the excess flour out
- Once mixture has chilled, scoop a large teaspoon full of mixture into each of the 12 cavities. No need to spread the mixture -it will spread as it cooks
- Bake for 8-10 minutes, until lightly golden and springy
- Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes, before gently loosening and releasing each madeleine from the pan.
- Allow to cool on a cake rack, then dust with extra icing sugar and serve
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