madeleines
I have had some madeleine adventures this week. I volunteered to make these French cookies for my Relief Society Christmas party, which has a "Christmas Around the World" theme. They passed around a clipboard of cookie recipes from all different countries, taken from Christmas-Cookies.com, and asked that people volunteer to choose a country and make the corresponding cookies. I figured I may be the only person with access to madeleine pans, so that's how I got stuck with them.
Here is the recipe I was given:
Cinnamon Madeleines
2 eggs
1 cup white sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 t ground nutmeg
3/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
1/2 t almond extract
1/2 t cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350F. Spray madeleine molds with non-stick spray. In a double boiler, heat eggs and sugar stirring constantly; whipping in as much air as possible. Remove from heat, let cool. Stir in flour, then add remaining ingredients. Fill madeleine molds with a generous amount of batter, but don't spread it out. bake until lightly browned, approximately 15 minutes. Cool one minute, then remove to racks to cool completely. Sprinkle with powdered sugar or dip in chocolate.
I followed these vague directions as best I could, since it didn't say how long to heat the egg and sugar, and "fill generously" isn't exactly a helpful description. Here's what the final product looked like:
Terrible! Cooling one minute, yeah right. Even though they were the greasiest buggars ever, they would not come out of the pans! They tasted like butter and snickerdoodles, not like they should have. After cursing and thanking my lucky stars that I tested the recipe before the event (this was Saturday, the party is Tuesday) I looked for another option. I went with America's Test Kitchen, and made their madeleines today. Here's the recipe:
1 c cake flour
1/4 t salt
2 large eggs
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup sugar
1 T vanilla extract
10 T unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1. Adjust oven rack to middle and heat to 375. Grease madeleine mold. Whisk flour and salt together.
2. In large bowl, beat egg and egg yolk with electric mixer on high until frothy, 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in sugar and vanilla until very thick, 3 to 5 minutes. with rubber spatula, gently fold in flour mixture, followed by melted butter.
3. Spoon half of batter into prepared mold, filling to the rims. Bake until golden and spring back when pressed lightly, about 10 minutes, rotating mold halfway through baking.
4. Let cookies cool in mold for 10 minutes, then flip out onto a wire rack and let cool completely before serving, about 1 hour. Cool and re-grease mold and repeat with the remaining batter.
Here's what this recipe yielded:
They actually look like the real thing! The ingredient list is almost the same, but the drastic difference in preparation can made a huge difference in the end result. And don't worry, I tasted one and they are delicious!
Here is the recipe I was given:
Cinnamon Madeleines
2 eggs
1 cup white sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 t ground nutmeg
3/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
1/2 t almond extract
1/2 t cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350F. Spray madeleine molds with non-stick spray. In a double boiler, heat eggs and sugar stirring constantly; whipping in as much air as possible. Remove from heat, let cool. Stir in flour, then add remaining ingredients. Fill madeleine molds with a generous amount of batter, but don't spread it out. bake until lightly browned, approximately 15 minutes. Cool one minute, then remove to racks to cool completely. Sprinkle with powdered sugar or dip in chocolate.
I followed these vague directions as best I could, since it didn't say how long to heat the egg and sugar, and "fill generously" isn't exactly a helpful description. Here's what the final product looked like:
Terrible! Cooling one minute, yeah right. Even though they were the greasiest buggars ever, they would not come out of the pans! They tasted like butter and snickerdoodles, not like they should have. After cursing and thanking my lucky stars that I tested the recipe before the event (this was Saturday, the party is Tuesday) I looked for another option. I went with America's Test Kitchen, and made their madeleines today. Here's the recipe:
1 c cake flour
1/4 t salt
2 large eggs
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup sugar
1 T vanilla extract
10 T unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1. Adjust oven rack to middle and heat to 375. Grease madeleine mold. Whisk flour and salt together.
2. In large bowl, beat egg and egg yolk with electric mixer on high until frothy, 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in sugar and vanilla until very thick, 3 to 5 minutes. with rubber spatula, gently fold in flour mixture, followed by melted butter.
3. Spoon half of batter into prepared mold, filling to the rims. Bake until golden and spring back when pressed lightly, about 10 minutes, rotating mold halfway through baking.
4. Let cookies cool in mold for 10 minutes, then flip out onto a wire rack and let cool completely before serving, about 1 hour. Cool and re-grease mold and repeat with the remaining batter.
Here's what this recipe yielded:
They actually look like the real thing! The ingredient list is almost the same, but the drastic difference in preparation can made a huge difference in the end result. And don't worry, I tasted one and they are delicious!
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