The basic batter for these Madeleines is really easy to make. You don’t even need a mixer, just a whisk. Oh, and brown butter!
Ingredients
- 90g (or ⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon) unsalted butter, cubed
- 2 large eggs
- 100g (or ½ cup) granulated sugar
- 90g (or ½ cup + 2 tablespoons + ½ teaspoon) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- pinch of table salt
- 1½ tablespoons milk
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- 2 tablespoons shaved almonds
For the apricot glaze
- 3 tablespoons apricot jam
- 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
- First, brown the butter by placing it in a small saucepan. Heat over low heat, stirring until the butter has melted. Crank up the heat to medium-high and allow the butter to come to a boil. The butter will start to sizzle and splatter violently as the water evaporates. Using a rubber spatula, scrape the sides of the pan every now and then to keep tiny splatters of butter on the sides of the pan from burning. After a few minutes, the milk solids in the butter will start to brown and the butter will start to smell nutty and delicious.
- Remove the butter from the heat and immediately pour it into a heatproof container to cool. If you were to leave the butter in the pan, the residual heat from the pan would burn it. Set the butter aside to cool while you make the batter for the madeleines.
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together one egg and the sugar until foamy. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk until incorporated. Whisk in the remaining egg until the batter looks smooth again. Then add the milk to the cooled (but still melted) brown butter and drizzle the mixture into the batter, whisking continuously.
- Finally, whisk in the extracts. Set the batter aside for 50 minutes at room temperature, then place in the fridge to chill for another 10 minutes.
- In the meantime, preheat the oven to 390°F and adjust oven rack to middle position. Butter a Madeleine pan and divide the batter among the molds, filling them almost to the top. There’s no need to smooth the batter, as it will even out as it bakes. Sprinkle over the shaved almonds.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven, invert the hot pan over a cool baking sheet or a wire rack and gently rap the pan against the sheet/counter/rack to get the madeleines out of the pan. Set the madeleines aside to cool
- In the meantime, make the glaze,combine jam and water in a small saucepan and heat, stirring, until the jam loosens and melts into the water. Remove from the heat. Using a pastry brush, brush the shell-side of the madeleines with the glaze.
- Serve warm or at room temperature. Madeleines taste best on the day they’re made, but you can keep them, stored in an airtight container, for another day or two.
