French Lemon Madeleines
Exquisite little cakes, these French Lemon Madeleines are easy to make. Perfectly sized little treats, rich in butter and delicately flavoured with a touch of lemon, these moist cakes are the ideal snack for "goûter" time (the French version of the afternoon snack).
Ingredients
- 150 g plain flour
- 11/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 lemon zest from ½ lemon is used
- 125 g butter
- 3 eggs
- 1 pinch of fine salt
- 130 g sugar
- 20 g honey (runny)
Instructions
- Sieve flour and baking powder. Sieve together 150g of plain flour with 1/1/4 teaspoons of baking powder into a bowl.
- Grate the lemon zest. Finely grate the zest from ½ lemon.
- Melt butter. Melt 125g of butter in a small saucepan over a gentle heat. Just enough heat to melt the butter is needed.
- Whisk. Break 3 eggs into a large mixing bowl and add 1 pinch of salt (finely ground), 130g of sugar and 20g of honey (preferably runny). I use an electric hand held whisk for this stage and beat the ingredients for about 5 minutes until the mixture whitens and develops a mousse-like texture. A sign that the mixture has been beaten sufficiently is if a light trail is left in the mixture when moving the whisk.
- Add sieved flour. Add the sieved flour to the egg mixture and gently fold in.
- Add rest of ingredients. Add the melted butter and grated lemon zest, and gently stir until the ingredients are well mixed together.
- Refrigerate. Place the Madeleine mixture in the fridge. Leave the mixture to chill overnight.
- Pre-heat Oven. Pre-heat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius (425 degrees Fahrenheit, Gas Mark 7). It is important that the oven reaches this temperature before the cold, uncooked Madeleines are placed in the oven.
- Bake. Butter the Madeleine moulds (or mini-muffin tins) and lightly dust with plain flour. Fill the moulds so that the batter fills them by approximately two thirds. This can be a little tricky to judge initially with cold batter, so go with best guesstimates. I tend to overfill rather than underfill. Bake in the oven for about 8 to 10 minutes.
- Cool. Remove the Madeleines from the baking tray and cool on a wire rack.
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