Madeleine

Madeleines are delicious French pastries that are fairly simple to prepare. I offer you the classic recipe for madeleines, but remember that with my Italian heart, I can’t resist suggesting a small Italian twist at the end of the recipe.

Ingredients

• 130 g of flour
• 130 g of sugar
• 120 g of butter
• 2 large eggs
• 1 lemon (grated zest)
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• A pinch of salt

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C.
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan and let it cool.
3. In a bowl, whisk the eggs with the sugar until the mixture is light and frothy.
4. Add the grated lemon zest and mix well.
5. Gently fold in the sifted flour with baking powder and a pinch of salt into the egg mixture.
6. Add the melted butter and mix until the batter is smooth.
7. Let the batter rest in the refrigerator for at least one hour (this will help to achieve the typical bump of the madeleines).
8. Butter and flour the madeleine mold, then fill it up to two-thirds of each cavity with the batter.
9. Bake for about 10-12 minutes or until the madeleines are golden and puffy.
10. Remove from the oven and let them cool on a wire rack.

And now, for the Italian variation: you could add a touch of vanilla to enrich the aroma and replace the lemon zest with orange or tangerine zest for a more Mediterranean flavor.

Curiosity

Legend has it that madeleines take their name from a French maid, Madeleine Paulmier, who is said to have served these pastries to a Polish duke in exile in the Lorraine region in the 18th century. Since then, madeleines have become famous especially through literature, such as in Marcel Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time”, where the taste of a madeleine dipped in tea evokes a powerful childhood memory in the protagonist.