Are they a cookie or a cake? Who cares, they are delicious. These classic French desserts are a simple way to impress guests at your next party. The shape is elegant, and people will think that you slaved away making these beautiful cookie-cakes, but they really aren’t that difficult. The trick is all in the pan, you really do need a madeleine pan to get the classic shell shape and texture. These are again a favorite of mine, especially when I am looking for a simple way to impress, but they also feature my favorite flavor, lemon.
- 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest (about 1 lemon)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 3 eggs (room temperature)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Melt butter on stove on medium heat until melted, then turn down to low and brown the butter solids. Browning the butter adds depth to the flavor and is a simple step to enhance the flavor of any recipe that involves melted butter. Once the solids have browned to your liking remove from heat and add the lemon zest and vanilla extract.
Allow butter to cool. While cooling, beat the eggs on medium speed in a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment. Room temperature eggs fluff/whip better than cold eggs. Gradually add the sugar to the eggs, once the sugar has combined with the eggs, turn of the mixer to high and whip for 3-5 minutes until the mixture thickens and is pale yellow in color.
While the eggs and sugar are whisking, sift the flour, salt, and baking powder. Once the egg mixture is done whisking, fold in the flour mixture in quarters. Be sure that all of the flour is incorporated before adding the next quarter of the flour mixture. Once the flour is entirely folded in, it is now time to fold in the cooled butter. Once the butter is incorporated into the batter, chill the batter for two hours (you can even do up to 24 hours, but who wants to wait that long for delicious cookie-cakes?).
Time to melt some more butter, this time just to coat the pan so that our cookies don’t stick. Once the dough has chilled, spoon batter into each well of your madeleine pan. Bake for about 12-15 minutes, until the edges are just turning a golden brown and the cakes develop the characteristic belly (see photo). Cool the madeleines in the pan on a wire rack for a minute or two, before flipping out on the wire rack to fully cool. This should help the cookie-cakes release.
What to do if they stick? I find it is easiest to use my fingers while the cookies are still warm and gently lift any cookies that are sticking to the pan, just enough to encourage them to let go. Once the cookies are cooled you have a few options for finishing them. The two classic ways to serve these cakes are to either cover in confectioner’s sugar or to dip the round part of the shell into melted chocolate.
