Friday Food - Madeleines

I used to have an engineer on my team. She was a little slip of a thing, single, lived alone in a tiny apartment, and in her free time she would bake. She would bake all sorts of cookies and cakes, keeping our team and company well fed. Every now and then she would bake madeleines. I found myself walking past her office more often on those days. A couple years ago, my Mum brought me some madeleine pans from the Sur la Table store in San Diego.  I finally got around to using them the other afternoon, probably as I was procrastinating from packing. M, these are for you.

Lemon-Coconut Madeleines - makes approximately 24

1 ½ Tbsp melted butter (or more) – for greasing pans

3              large eggs

2/3 cup    sugar

1 tsp        lemon extract

¼ pound  unsalted butter, melt and cool

1 cup       all-purpose flour

¼ cup      cornstarch

½ tsp       baking powder

¼ tsp       kosher salt

1/3 cup    sweetened shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 375F. Thoroughly grease and flour the madeleine pans. I used a brush to help get the butter in all the grooves.

Madeleine pans pre-prep

Greased and floured

3 eggs

Beat the eggs, sugar, and lemon extract on medium speed for 3 minutes in an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. The mixture should be light, yellow, and fluffy.

Add the butter and mix.

Melting butter - remember to let it cool before adding!

Sift together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt.

Sifted dry ingredients

Stir into the egg and sugar batter with a spatula. Stir in the coconut.

Batter anyone?

With a table spoon, drop the batter into the pans, filling each shell almost full. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until they spring back when pressed. Flip the madeleines out onto a cooling rack lined with parchment paper and allow to cool.

The first batch

These are best served right out of the oven, as they can dry out fairly quickly. I put mine in a Tupperware as soon as they were cool, and while they did dry out a bit, I think it helped them last a day or two longer.

Up close and personal

 The lemon flavour was just a hint. For stronger flavour, add some lemon zest along with the extract.

Play around with flavours. I had a thought that lime zest and coconut would make an even better pairing. Even simple vanilla would be just as mouth-watering.


Enjoy!