Delicious French madeleines with a perfect shape and a great fluffy texture, like in France
About this recipe
Here's a simple and delicious recipe of madeleines, that I make quite often
All madeleines recipes are HERE
With this recipe, you will eat madeleines with a great texture light, fluffy and very tasty, vanilla flavored!
I simply love their texture
Let's make them together!
Origin of the recipe
We do not know for sure the exact origin of this small cake, but what we know:
● We found shell shape molds in Pompei
● One legend pretends that a young girl called Madeleine served cakes to the Saint-Jacques pilgrims in Spain
● The great cook Antonin Carême gave this cake its name "Madeleine"
● The madeleine was apparently born in a French town "Commercy"
● The Commercy madeleine became popular starting in the years 1810
● The expression "madeleine de Proust" refers to a famous passage from Marcel Proust's novel "À la recherche du temps perdu," published in the early 20th century. In this passage, the narrator dips a madeleine into a cup of tea, and this experience evokes a buried memory of his childhood, triggering a cascade of memories and emotions linked to his past. The expression has become a symbol of involuntary memory.
Source of the recipe
An excellent recipe by Lenôtre, found in the book "Les douceurs de l’enfance"
To purchase the book online:
The recipe is on page 134
Modifications to the original recipe
I modified only a few things...
● I add the Vanilla Extract (1 teaspoon)
● I add Salt (1 pinch)
● I only use 2 teaspoons or 9 g of Baking Powder (my yeast is too strong I think), instead of 11 g (0.38 oz )
Take the Butter out of the fridge and let it warm at room temperature, 30 minutes to one hour
Left: Here's how the Butter should look like
Do not melt your butter ! It would become too hot !
Make sure the butter is not hot ! A butter too hot would activate the baking powder before baking : the madeleines would be flat and would not look as beautiful !
The Batter
1. Whisk the the Eggs (3), the Sugar (½ Cup or 130 g), the Vanilla Sugar (1 teaspoon or 8 g), the Honey (1 teaspoon), the Salt (1 pinch) and the Vanilla Extract (1 teaspoon).
2. Whisk until doubled in size
3. My advice to get better results : your Eggs should be at room temperature, the Sugar must be white, not brown, the best Honey for this recipe is a thick "raw" honey. If you live in the States, Trader Joe's sells a "Organic Raw Honey" that is thick and perfect for this
Stainless Steel Mixing Bowl
DeBuyer Whisk
The powders
4. Sift the Flour (1 ½ Cup or 210 g) and the Baking Powder (2 teaspoons or 9 g) over the mixing bowl
5. Combine, using a spatula
6. The batter may seem a bit thick. Wrap airtight
7. Place the batter in the refrigerator for 1 hour
8. Add in the Butter (¾ Cup or 170 g) (soft !) and mix
9. Cover with saran wrap
Resting the batter
10. You will need to wrap the batter with plastic wrap (the plastic wrap must touch the batter, and not cover the bowl)
11. You will need to place the batter in the refrigerator for 4 hours, that's a secret !
Softening the batter
12. Let the batter soften (it's too hard) at room temperature for about 30 minutes to one hour
Preparing the pans
Metallic Molds : To purchase online, see HERE
Silicone Molds : To purchase online, see HERE
You will need good madeleines molds.
Silicon Molds : You may want to avoid silicon molds as the madeleines would be too soft, but you have no choice, then use silicon molds. Silicon molds make madeleines less crusty, however some people like it that way !
Metallic Molds : I prefer Metallic pans. If you want to purchase metallic madeleine pans, the best brand is GOBEL. In the States, you can find them at the store "Sur La Table"
With Metallic Molds, you will need to coat them with a spray
Sur La Table
161 W Colorado Blvd
Pasadena, CA 91105
USA
12-Cavity Madeleine Pan Mold Carbon Steel Nonstick
Silicone Madeleine Pan (3 Pack)
Sunflower Oil Cooking Spray
Avocado Oil Spray
I do NOT recommend to coat the molds with butter, which will brown your madeleines !
● Coating Silicon Molds : if you use silicon molds, you don't need oil or butter
● Coating Metallic Molds : When using metallic pans, you need to spray oil. Alternatively, you may brush melted butter and then sprinkle some flour, to make sure the madeleines will not stick, but be aware of this inconvenient : the bottom of the madeleines will get brown
Using a Pastry Bag
Take the batter out of the fridge
To pour into the pans, pastry chefs
The pastry tip size should be 0.55" (or 35/64" or 1.4 cm) in diameter use a Pastry Bag. Another option is to simply use a spoon
Matfer Bourgeat Pastry Bags
Piping Tips
Push and squeeze the Pastry Bag inside the tip firmly to avoid the batter to go out the Pastry Bag while you are transferring your batter
Filling the molds
13. You need to fill the pans not more than 80% of their volume
Another resting time...
14. Make sure to not "overload" with too much batter !
15. Then place the mold in the fridge for about 15 minutes.
Preheating the oven
16. 
Meanwhile, preheat the oven at 400 °F / 200 °C
17. If you have a pizza stone, place it into the oven
Baking the madeleines
18. Place the pans in the preheated oven at 400 °F / 200 °C for 8 minutes to 11 minutes until golden
19. The batter melts
20. The batter fills the cavities
21. The center starts rising
22. The nice shape with the bump appears !
You are done !
You may use a rubber spatula if the madeleines are sticking to the pan
Turn the madeleines and leave them on the molds
Turning the madeleines avoid them to continue baking inside the hot pan
Hints
Let's sum up : to make tasty and madeleines with a good shape :
batter must rest 4H in the fridge,
oven temperature must be quite hot, preheated 30 minutes,
and batter must NOT be mixed before being poured into the pans.
If with these pieces of advice you don't get the result you expect, start by changing brands of baking powder, flour, and try another recipe of madeleines that we have on my website
That's it! Just wait a few minutes for them to cool down
Love your recipes. Thanks for the tricks !!
If I use silicon mold, does the oven temperature remained the same? Thanks
Silicon molds heat less than metal molds, so by safety you can increase the temperature by 10 degrees Fahrenheit, 5 degrees Celsius.
It also depends if your oven is a conventional or a convection oven, but all in all you should be safe by adding those degrees
Hi,in the recipe it is mentioned not to stir the batter after refrigerating. But in the Hints section says the batter must be mixed before scooping into trays. Which way is correct? Thank you!
Hi Edita, the right answer is :
The batter must NOT be mixed before being poured into the molds
I corrected the hints section, thank you for bringing this to my attention !!
Do you soften batter while in pastry bag, or before placing in pastry Bag??
After batter in pan, you mention a second resting time, but no time given.
Before placing in the pastry bag !
lemony? i dont see mention of lemons/juice/zest in the recipe…am i missing something?
otherwise, I love all the detailed instructions in this recipe! i purchased a madeleine baking pan for my 9 year old neice (an aspiring chef) i think these directions will help her immensely, thank you!
You are right, Kim. That's because I replaced the original recipe with this one, which is the authentic Lenotre recipe (book). I updated the recipe description : no lemon in this recipe.
However you may want to take a look at this one if you are looking for a recipe with lemon. (but it's in French... use Google translate if you want to see it HERE)
Where can I find a recipe for madeleines written in French? Merci!
theres a link on top of the page to the recipe in French...
Thank you for the thorough description, but may I use less sugar if I prefer less sweet, or does it affect the appearance?
That works with less sugar...
Hi
How does one get 2.1 or 2.2 eggs?
I thank you for your time.
Enjoy your day,
Tom
you would for instance beat 3 eggs, and take the corresponding weight to match 2.2 eggs (110 g (¼ lbs ))
What happens in step 6?
Thank you.
I added the missing text.
It should read :
Wrap airtight