Lemon Drizzled Madeleines
I’ve recently become entirely obsessed with baking again. I mean, the obsession never really went away, more that it was kind of hiding just beneath the surface. I’m almost ashamed to admit that I can count the amount of things I’ve baked over the past 7 months on one hand. Nope, I was wrong – I’m definitely ashamed. Like, hello, how did I survive!? The list includes two different types of brownies, a cheesecake, a chocolate birthday cake, & these madeleines. Seeing it written down like that is such a kick in the gut.
It was the chocolate cake that pushed me back into the swing of things – it was a really demanding four layer chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream, a layer of ganach poured artfully over the top & down the sides, all topped off with some piped drops of extra buttercream on top. I loved every second of making it. & so here we are, back in the land of butter & chocolate & all things delicious. Which brings us to these lemony little madeleines.
Do you know what a madeleine is? If I’m being perfectly honest I wasn’t entirely sure until I started doing the research for this post. I mean, I’ve had a madeleine tray for about two years now… but this is the first time it’s ever been used. Anyone else fall victim to talking themselves into needing obscure shaped baking trays & then they just lie around unused? Don’t even get me started on my stollen tin. Anyway, madeleines are little shell shaped butter cakes. From what I gather online, they are meant to be crispy on the outside & moist & light on the inside.
Now, I’ve never actually had a real French madeleine, but these little babies turned out pretty good! They were crispy on the outside & moist & delicious on the inside. They also smelled like butter, which is always a big plus in my opinion. To make these, I melded together two recipes – one from a rather intimidating volume on apparently every French food item ever; & one from a most beloved cookbook of mine. Both recipes were for a plain & simple madeleine, so I decided to whip up a simple lemon drizzle to make them that extra bit more exciting.. & then I topped that off with some lemon zest, poppy seeds, and lemon wedges. Because I just don’t know how to leave well enough alone.
Ingredients
- 200g of plain flour, as well as extra for dusting the tray
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- 140g caster sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 200g of salted butter, softened; extra for greasing the tray
- 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
- 1 cup of icing sugar
- 3-4 teaspoons of lemon juice
- lemon zest & poppy seeds, for decoration (optional)
Method
- Into a medium sized bowl, sift the flour & the baking powder. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, use an electric whisk to mix together the sugar & the eggs until fluffy. Once fluffy, at the butter. (I found that the butter actually had to be super soft in order to fully incorporate.)
- Using your lucky spatula, gently fold the flour mixture & the vanilla extract into the mix. Cover the bowl with cling film & leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 180C; grease the madeleine tin thoroughly with butter & dust with flour.
- Remove the mix from the fridge & place only one tablespoon in each madeleine mould (don’t over fill them, they spread in the oven!)
- Bake the madeleines in the oven for 10-12 minutes, or until they start to turn a lovely golden brown.
- Remove & leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- To make lemon drizzle, mix 3-4 teaspoons of lemon juice with the icing sugar until happy with the consistency & zingy-ness!
- Drizzle the glaze across the top & decorate with some shaved zest or perhaps some poppy seeds.
As an aside, aren’t flowers pretty? I never want to take any photos for the blog without them ever again.