Madeleines!

fried chicken? noo.. they are MADELEINES! : D

Traditional Madeleines
recipe from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours
-makes 12 full size madeleines or up to 36 mini madeleines

2/3 cup all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 cup sugar
grated zest of 1 lemon (I subbed this with zest of grapefruit!)
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
3/4 stick (6 tbsp) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
confectioners' sugar, for dusting

1. Whisk together flour, baking power and salt.
2. Working in a mixer/large bowl, rub sugar and zest together with fingertips until sugar is moist and fragrant. Add the eggs in. With a mixer (whisk attachment), beat the eggs and sugar together on medium- high speed until pale, thick and light (2-3 minutes). Beat in the vanilla.
3. With a rubber spatula, very gently fold the dry ingredients into the egg and sugar mixture, followed by the melted butter.
4. Press a piece of plastic wrap against the batter and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or for up to 2 days. (This chill period will help form the hump of the madeleines.)
5. Preheat oven to 400F.
6. Butter the madeleine molds, dust the insides with flour and tap out the excess. Or just coat lightly with vegetable cooking spray. Spoon batter into molds, filling each one almost to the top.
7. Bake large madeleines for 11 to 13 minutes, and minis for 8 to 10 minutes, or until they are golden and the tops spring back when touched.
8. Remove pans from oven and gently pry madeleins from the pan to cool.
9. Dust the madeleines with confectioners' sugar and serve. (I skipped this part)
*If you have more batter, bake the next batch(es), making certain that you cool the pan(s) before baking.



I never had an authentic madeleines before (only tried costco ones) so I am not sure if mine were actually "traditional." The taste was alright. It was a little citrus-y.. most likely coming from the excessive grapefruit zest I used. (I love the smell of grapefruit! ♥) Sweetness was right on the spot. And the texture was crumbly/ fine and tight(?).

Taste: 3 stars out of 5
Texture: 3.5 stars out of 5

I cut the recipe in half and made 8 large madeleines out of it. The first batch I refrigerated it in the mold. I highly NOT recommend doing this because the madeleines will end up sticking to the pan!! I sprayed the mold with Pam for the second batch after the mold cooled completely (Btw, I am using my new madeleines mold from Daiso!). This time, they were still sticking a little but not as bad. (will try the butter and flour way next time) The shell pattern turned out a bit more distinct. And I also noticed that they browned faster with the same baking time. Mm anyhow, I am not sure if the refrigerating is necessary. I will most likely skip out on this (= save three hours). I find the resulting hump on the madeleines sort of unnecessary. :p I will experiment with no refrigeration and see if it affects the madeleine taste- wise.

Without the citrus-y, grapefruit-y taste, I think it would be a whole lot better. Next time, I would omit the grapefruit or lemon zest. And maybe try the earl grey version instead. I always expected madeleines to be butter-y tasting.. sort of like pound cake. But I guess not.