Classic Madeleines

I used to not consider myself much of a baker. Honestly, I’m not always great about precise measurement or timing, and often had trouble with finicky ovens. But in college, I discovered a love of baking madeleines. I’m not sure how I got started – potentially after reading some Marciel Proust – but I loved how easy and quick it was to make these delicious delicate French cookies. Personally, I prefer the classic flavoring of madeleines with a hint of lemon, but there are lots of variations that you can introduce.

My variation of madeleines is quite straightforward and simple. It’s an adaptation from this Bon Appetit recipe, with slight modifications. The cookie ingredients required are easy to find – flour, butter, eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, salt and lemon zest. And you can easily make these delightful French cookies in under 30 minutes. Chilling the dough is encouraged as it’ll help puff up the madeleines to help accentuate the rounded hump shape. However, I’ve baked madeleines without chilling the dough first without any issue.

The only special call out is that in order to make proper madeleines, you will need some special scalloped madeleine mold pans. It’s best to get 2 pans so you can bake all 24 cookies at a time. I prefer nonstick pans that bake 12 at a time; I bought mine on Amazon for fairly cheap.

Prepare the batter

In a small pot or saucepan, melt 10 tablespoons of butter until it smells slightly toasty. Set aside to let cool slightly.

Then in a large bowl, beat 2 eggs and 2/3 cup white granulated sugar with an electric mixer on high speed until mixture is pale and thickens slightly. Once mixed, gently beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 tablespoon lemon zest and a pinch of salt until just blended. Sift flour into the egg mixture in batches (about one-third of the mixture at a time), gently folding in with a rubber spatula. Gradually stream in the cooled melted butter, beating just until blended. Be careful not to overmix.

At this time, you can cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill the dough for minimum an hour, or up to 2 days. However, I’ve also gone straight to baking the dough without noticeable differences in the quality of the cookies.

Baking the madeleines

To start baking, pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Then butter and flour the mold pans. To save time, you could consider using a cooking spray, but I typically just brush or rub butter in the molds and sift flour over them.

Spoon about 1 tablespoon of the batter into each well of the madeleine mold. It’s best to have a rounded scoop in the middle of each mold so it’ll raise up as the classic hump. Don’t worry about spreading out the batter as it’ll spread out as it bakes.

Place both batter-filled pans in the pre-heated oven. Bake for about 11-12 minutes, until puffed and the edges start to turn golden. Be careful not to overbake; you can start checking on the cookies as early as 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven. Immediately loosen madeleines from pan and invert onto a wire rack to cool. With nonstick pans, the cookies typically don’t stick, but if they do, you can use the tip of a knife to loosen them from the pan.

Once the madeleines are cooled, dust lightly with powdered sugar and serve. These cookies are best eaten fresh, but you can store leftovers in an airtight container.