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How to Make French Madeleines

How to Make French Madeleines

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Karen Stiegler
Culinary Instructor, Recipe Developer, Tester, www.pastrynomad.com
www.pastrynomad.com  
 

Karen Stiegler is a culinary educator, recipe developer and recipe tester. Karen holds a Diplome de Patisserie from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and has been teaching American and French pastry and desserts in the U.S. and abroad for over 10 years. She is currently teaching for Williams-Sonoma, and offers group, private, and hands-on courses as well as professional pastry demonstrations in shops and restaurants, and also specializes in Healthy Baking. Karen also has extensive experience in catering of American desserts, cakes and candies. Karen spent three years in Paris researching and teaching French pastries and desserts to Americans abroad, founding her own pastry instruction program. Karen is also a professional cake decorator and instructor, and was Cake Decorating Instructor of the Year Worldwide Developmental Accounts in 2000 for Wilton Industries. Karen has a number of published recipes and also holds a Bachelors Degree in Journalism from Pepperdine University. She just completed work on a recipe and menu project for the newly opened Bazaar dining concept by Chef Jose Andres' of Jaleo, Washington, DC, including all restaurants in the new SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Karen served as a personal chef to the British Ambassador in Oslo, Norway, where she also worked on recipe development, testing and a cookbook. She has lived in France, Norway, Germany, Switzerland, Africa and Asia, and traveled extensively throughout the world, sampling all types of cuisine. Karen is a member of Les Dames d'Escoffier and well as Women Chefs and Restaurateurs professional organizations. A recipe of Karen's is included in the James Beard Award Finalist Cookbook, "Cooking with Les Dames d'Escoffier". Karen speaks French, Spanish, Norwegian and German. She has also worked for the National Restaurant Association.

How to Make French Madeleines

Join Pastry Chef Karen Stiegler to made traditional French Madeleines, a favorite in France due to their light texture, warm flavor and unique shape. These petite cakelettes are served for dessert or with a cup of coffee or tea. Karen will take you through the complete process for making these buttery sponge cakes, including the best tools, ingredients and methods to achieve the most delicious and soft Madeleines.

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How to Make French Madeleines

Ingredients

(Makes about 20 Madeleines)

¾ cup plus 2 Tablespoons butter

2 teaspoons honey

¾ cup sugar

Pinch of salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 ½ cups flour, sifted

4 eggs

Butter and flour for preparing the molds

Confectioner's sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Melt the butter and add the honey. Set aside and allow to cool.

2. Whisk together the sugar, sugar, salt, baking powder and flour in a medium sized bowl and set aside. Whisk together the eggs into a second medium sized bowl, add the cooled melted butter/honey, and whisk to combine. Finally add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk until well blended, cleaning the sides of the bowl. Refrigerate the batter for about 10 minutes or until firm.

3. Melt about two tablespoons of butter to prepare the molds. Brush the melted butter inside the regular or mini molds and dust the well with flour, tapping off excess.

4. Take the batter out of the fridge and place in a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip, or fill a disposable bag and cut off the tip. Pipe a ball of batter into each of the molds being careful to not overfill them-the batter will even out as it bakes. You may also use a small spoon to carefully spoon the batter into the molds.

5. Bake the Madeleines until golden and very puffy, about 15 to 17 minutes. Remove from the oven, tap the mold on the counter to release the Madeleines from the molds, then cool on racks. They should come easily out of the molds if you have prepared the molds correctly. Make sure to clean and prepare the molds for a second batch of Madeleines using the same mold.

6. You can serve the Madeleines slightly warm, fresh from the oven, or at room temperature, still a little crisp on the outside. Arrange on a serving plate and dust with confectioner's sugar before serving. They are at their peak when freshly baked! Try to consume the same day baked, or store in an air tight container once cool.

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Transcripts

Karen Stiegler: Hello and Bonjour! My name is Karen Stiegler. Today I am showing you how to make Traditional French Madelines. These madelines are wonderful as a dessert or great with a cup of coffee or tea. I will take you through the complete process for making these petite French cakes. First, I am going to tell you about the ingredients and how to prepare them. Next I will tell you about combining the ingredients. Then we will prepare the pans and the oven and then we will fill the molds. Finally, we will bake the madelines and present them. So the tools you will need to make the madelines are a regular and mini-sized madeline pan. A small sauce pan, a set of measuring spoons, a set of dry measuring cups, a whisk, a medium ball, a sifter or large strainer, a plastic or rubber spatula, a regular pastry bag with a large round tip or disposable pastry bag. A tall cup, a kitchen towel, a pastry brush, a small strainer, parchment or wax paper and finally plastic wrap. The ingredients you will need are three quarter cup plus two tablespoons of unsalted butter, plus about two tablespoons of extra butter for preparing the pans, two teaspoons of honey, three quarter cup of granulated sugar, a pinch of salt, one teaspoon of baking powder. One-and-a-half cups of all purpose flour, plus a little bit extra for preparing the pans about four tablespoons will be enough. Four eggs and two tablespoons of convection sugar for the presentation. Before we begin, I would like to talk about kitchen safety. I remind you that it's important. When you are working with a hot oven, hot stove, a sharp knife, it is always important to be careful. If young children are in the kitchen, they should be closely supervised. What are madelines? Madelines are buttery shell shaped cakelets, that are favorite in France due to their warm flavor, soft texture, and unique shape. The shell shape is actually an elongated scallop and they are about the size of a large cookie, but they have that more soft, tender, sponge cake like texture. The flavor is similar to, but lighter than an American pan cake. But I like this recipe because you can make it totally by hand. So let's get started making our French Madelines.

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