Meet the Madeleines

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I made these chocolate-dipped orange zest madeleines as a little gift for the parents of one of Cole’s friends several months ago and again this week because they are so good and easy to make. As I was dipping them in the chocolate, A Hard Day’s Night kept running through my head. The dunked cookies looked like little mop-top Beatles to me.

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I’m still using Bill Granger’s Lemon Madeleine recipe as the basic recipe… it just works, and makes wonderfully light cookies that have a lovely crispness on the outside and tender crumb inside. However, last time I made them, I was using a silicon madeleine tray. I’ve since picked up a metal tray which makes a world of difference in how the cookies brown. The silicone tray cookies brown unevenly versus the metal tray baked cookies. Guess which one I’ll be using from now on…

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The front cookie was baked in a silicone pan, the back in the metal pan.

When dipping the cookies, I recommend tempering the chocolate first. It’s a bit more work, but the chocolate will be crisper, cool more quickly and look much nicer than untempered chocolate.

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I also only dip about half of the batch, just in case someone isn’t a chocolate fan. The cookies are delicious on their own too.

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Chocolate-Dipped “Moptop” Orange Madeleines

adapted from bills food Lemon Madeleines recipe

For my baking these days, I’m loving Stone Buhr’s Shepard’s Grain flour. It’s about as local as you can get if you are in Seattle and it is reasonably priced. I’m also quite fond of Fairhaven’s organic flour. It’s not grown locally, but it is all organic and milled upstate.

6 oz unsalted butter, melted and cooled

5 eggs

3/4 cup caster sugar (or 200g)

1 t vanilla

zest from 1 orange

1 1/3 cup flour (or 200g)

1 t baking powder

dark chocolate, melted and tempered

Preheat oven to 400F.

Melt your butter and get it cooling.

Beat the eggs and the sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the orange zest and vanilla and mix till well combined.

Sift the flour and baking powder onto the egg mixture, and mix. Then, stir in the melted, cooled butter. Let the batter sit for 5 minutes.

Spoon into your madeleine mold. Don’t overfill them. Bake for 8 to 12 minutes, depending the size of your madeleines. The edges should be a golden brown.

Allow to cool before dipping in the chocolate. Once the chocolate has set, devour.

Makes 20-30 madeleines, depending on mold size

12 thoughts on “Meet the Madeleines

  1. I made some this afternoon with lime zest, and they’re delicious. I found the browner the better (first pan was brown on edges, pale underneath).

  2. I can’t decide which one I would like better, with or without chocolate! Although I love chocolate, the madeline’s alone look fabulous.
    I must try this recipe. The last time we made them, they came out really tough. I like the idea of finally being able to made something light and crumbly like yours.

  3. I love the combination of chocolate and orange, and so does my husband. But I never made madeleines before. I thought it’s complicated. Mamybe I’ll give it a try as a late Valentine’s treat for my sweet husbnad (who bought me a box of Theo chocolate truffles, and I didn’t even think about anything….).
    I don’t like silicone pans either also because of the sad looking pale color they give to baked goods.
    The Persimmon Madeleines sounds terrific!

  4. These look awesome! Now to find a madeleine pan or two. They are NOT common; where did you find any of your pans (or your silicone molds, for that matter)??

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