French Madeleines

August 11, 2016

French madeleines



After much contemplation and deliberations... I finally gave in to 'wants' of owning a madeleines pan.
Yay!!! :D

... and there are 2 more of bake wares that I am eyeing!!! Both are quite pricey and I am not sure how often I'll be using them. I will definitely use them once but after that....
I have to deliberate and justify 'wanting' them... :(

French madeleines


Since owning this madeleine pan... I have been experimenting baking Madeleines... what else! :D.
Read few tips and 'how-to' whipped one. Some are quite laborious, tedious while others seems manageable, that I started to have doubts. I had the notion (still has) that anything French made/baked are delicate in flavours, not easy to master.... I know of one good example, MACARON!!

Some batters are to be  rested overnight, some can just straight away bake. Some use baking powder and some not. Too many variations to name here... Mr Google is your uncle if you so wish to look up and get some bed time reading story on baking 'madeleines'.

I have narrowed down to 2 recipes: French cook book I owned "The Taste of France" (TToF) and of course... none other than the famous Ms Julia Child's (JC)
I posted both recipes below....

I did 2 batches from TToF : first batch - baked straight away as per recipe. Second batch - refrigerate overnight.
From JC~ just the one and only batch, required refrigeration for an hour.
All three were mixed using Kitchen mixer.
I presumed JC's original recipe was to hand mix till creamy... I am afraid that I did not follow her method, yikes :(. I'd be having muscle pull for the rest of the week if I had done so :(.

French madeleines


I found that madeleins (from The Taste of France cookbook), either you baked
a) Baked straight away
or
b) Refrigerate overnight

Has no significant difference.... both has the 'crisp' on the outside, soft on the inside when its hot, out of the oven. Best eat them on the day as it became 'dense' overnight.

Julia Child's ~ has the same texture as above with crisps on the outside but much softer on the inside. It was still good, eaten the next day.

But what I like about Julia Child's method is the mixing of flour, sugar and egg at the start. It gives a better homogenous batter. You can still whisk to pale/cream, and it still gives that 'hump'.

If I were to bake madeleines again... definitely I chose Julia Child's method :D
after all its Julia Child! it has to be good...right ;p
and its easy to follow :D :D

French madeleines


French Madeleines

Ingredients

    3 eggs (115g)
    115g caster sugar
    155g plain flour
    100g unsalted butter -melted
    zest of 1 lemon 

  1. Pre-heat oven to 200 C
  2. Whisk eggs and sugar until mixture is thick and creamy.
  3. Gently fold in flour, melted butter, lemon zest
  4. Spoon into mould (dollop and dont spread)
  5. Lower oven temperature to 180C
  6. Bake for 12-15 minutes until light gold in colour. 
  7. Remove and cool on wire rack.
** adapted with changes  'The Food of France'

French madeleines

Julia Child's Madeleines
2 large eggs (110g)- lightly beaten
135g caster sugar
150g plain flour
115g unsalted butter
pinch of salt
2 drops of vanilla extract
zest of 1 small lemon
1 teaspoon lemon juice
  1. Combine flour, sugar and 3/4 of eggs in a mixing bowl.
  2. Whisk till its thick and pale/ creamy (add eggs if required)
  3. Set aside 
  4. In a small saucepan, melt butter and bring to boil until it begins to change colour to light brown. 
  5. Leave butter to cool (still in liquid state)
  6. Add remaining egg, salt, vanilla. lemon zest and lemon juice into the batter.
  7. Whisk on low speed
  8. Add cooled butter into batter. 
  9. Whisk till combine
  10. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
  11. Pre-heat oven to 180C (fan) / 200C
  12. Drop approximate 1 tablespoon of batter into the mould and do not spread the batter to fill the mould!
  13. Place pan into oven and turn down temperature to 160C (fan)/ 180C
  14. Bake for 12-15 minutes.
  15. Remove and cool on wire rack.
  16. Sprinkle with icing sugar before serving
** adapted with changes 'From Julia Child's Kitchen'



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