Recently, I was given an antique French madeleine baking tray. I wish I knew its story, where in France it came from and who cooked with it. It’s marked with years of culinary love and attention and has clearly made many batches over the years. This tray doesn’t sit in the cupboard with the other trays and tins, it sits in my bookcase of cookbooks with a rightful reign of authority.
Madeleines are light delicious buttery sponge cakes that are always baked in a madeleine tray to give them their synonymous scalloped edge and shell-like shape. More often than not they are citrus or vanilla flavoured.
My recipe is based on Ginette Mathiot’s ‘the Art of French Baking’. Ginette was the Nigella Lawson of French home cooking. Writing her first cookbook in the 1930s, she went on to publish volumes of cookbooks that are still used today. Her recipes are simple and accessible which sets her aside from many of her counterparts.
In my recipe, I add lemon glaze to the scalloped edge of the madeleines, but you can dust them with icing sugar if you prefer. You can also replace the lemon zest with orange, lime or you can use vanilla seeds.
125g butter
125g caster sugar
150g plain flour
2 eggs
1 lemon zest
pinch sea salt
Melt the butter and set it aside for 10 minutes to cool.
Whisk the eggs for at least 5 minutes until they triple in volume and are a very pale yellow colour. Continue to whisk on a high setting and add the castor sugar in a slow steady stream. Finally add the lemon zest.
Sift the flour over the egg and slowly drizzle the butter down the side of the bowl and add the sea salt. Fold the mixture through until the batter is smooth.
Cover the bowl with cling film and place it in the fridge for 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Half to three quarters fill the madeleine tins with the batter.
Place the trays in the oven and cook for 8-10 minutes. The cakes should be evenly golden. Remove the madeleines from the oven and the tray and place them on a cake rack to cool.
For the glaze, which is optional, combine the juice of a lemon with about 4 tablespoons of icing sugar until it is smooth. Use a pastry brush to lightly brush the glaze over each scalloped edge.
