How to Make French Madeleines

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.