French Butter Madeleines
A delicate texture, a buttery-nutty flavour and a signature bumped top make the French Butter Madeleines an essential of French Baking. Once in a while, going back to basics is essential. Especially in baking. Some people’s basics will be chocolate chip cookies, some others’ will be bran muffins or brownies. For me, it’s crepes and French butter madeleines. The warm nutty smell of butter wrapping up the whole kitchen while baking madeleines always brings me back to my French childhood. And every bite taken into these small cushiony cakes always…
- Prep time
- 1 hr
- Cook time
- 12 min
- Yield
- 12 servings
- Difficulty
- EASY
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 2/3 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for molds
- 3 tablespoons almond flour (blanched or unblanched)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon fleur de sel or pinch of fine sea salt
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup (or honey)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and warm, plus unmelted for molds
- 2 tablespoons whole milk
Instructions
- 1
In a medium bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, almond flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
- 2
In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar and the eggs and whisk until mixture is pale and thickens slightly, about 2 minutes.
- 3
Whisk in the maple syrups (or honey) and vanilla extract.
- 4
Gently fold in the dry ingredients in three additions – For each additions, fold in the ingredients until just incorporated.
- 5
Fold in the melted butter until fully incorporated. Then finally, stir in milk until you get a smooth and shiny batter.
- 6
Leave the batter in the bowl and cover it with plastic wrap, pressing the wrap against the surface of the batter (this will avoid the creation of a skin at the surface of the batter). Transfer to refrigerator and chill for at least 2 hours, ideally overnight.
- 7
Spoon the batter into madeleine pan (filling about 2/3 of each molds) and transfer back to refrigerator for 1 hour.
- 8
Place a large baking sheet in the middle rack of your oven, and preheat it to 400 degrees F.
- 9
Place madeleine pan on preheated baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes, until the madeleines are golden and adorn big bumps.
- 10
Remove pan from oven and immediately bang the pan against your counter to easily remove the madeleines from molds. Let them cool on a wire rack.