Does your family do anything special on weekends?
My partner works on weekends but my two boys and I have settled in to a bit of a routine, after a busy week we like to take it slow Saturday mornings, no rushing they still get up by 6 am mind you but we are not going anywhere in a hurry. We also like to make something yummy for breakfast and it has become tradition to make a big batch of Madeleines to share.
For those of you who are not familiar Madeleines are French butter cakes baked in seashell shaped patty pans, they are delicious and my kiddies LOVE them!
I have tried and tested a number of recipes but keep coming back to a recipe from Rachel Khoo's ( LOVE her!!) cookbook Little Paris Kitchen. The original recipe is filled with lemon curd and raspberries, which is absolutely amazing but mostly we omit this part and just have them plain.
Here is the recipe:
Ingredients
- For the madeleines
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3 free-range eggs
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130g/4½oz sugar
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200g/7oz plain flour
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10g/¼oz baking powder
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1 unwaxed lemon, finely grated zest only
-
20g/¾oz honey
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4 tbsp milk
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200g/7oz butter, melted and cooled
-
punnet of raspberries
-
icing sugar, for dusting
-
- For the lemon curd
Preparation method
- Beat the eggs with the sugar until pale and frothy. Put the flour and baking powder into a separate bowl and add the lemon zest.
- Mix the honey and milk with the cooled butter, then add to the eggs. In two batches, fold in the flour. Cover and leave to rest in the fridge for a few hours, or overnight.
- Meanwhile, make the lemon curd. Put the lemon zest and juice, salt, sugar and butter into a small saucepan and heat gently until the sugar and butter have melted. Remove from the heat.
- Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl, then add to the pan and whisk vigorously. Return the pan to a low heat and whisk constantly as the curd starts to thicken. Don’t stop whisking or the eggs will curdle (if the curd starts to boil, take off the heat). Once the curd thickens and releases a bubble or two, remove from the heat and pass the curd through a sieve into a bowl. Place cling film in direct contact with the curd and refrigerate for at least an hour, preferably overnight.
- When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5. Butter and flour a 12-shell madeleine tin. Put the lemon curd into a piping bag fitted with a small, pointed nozzle and place in the fridge.
- Put a heaped tablespoon of batter into each madeleine shell and press a raspberry deep into the batter.
- Bake for five minutes and turn the oven off for one minute (the madeleines will get their signature peaks), then turn the oven on to 160C/325F/Gas 3 and bake for a further five minutes. Transfer the madeleines to a wire rack and leave for a few minutes until cool enough to handle. Meanwhile, wash and dry the tin, then repeat the baking as for the first batch.
- While the second batch is baking, pop the piping nozzle into the mound in each baked madeleine and squirt in a teaspoon’s worth of lemon curd. Repeat with the second batch, then dust with icing sugar and serve straightaway.
*Note I have also been out of the baking powder and just omitted but swapped plain flour for self raising and had no problems. I also add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to the batter for a stronger lemon flavour. I also make my batter up the night before allowing it to rest in the fridge overnight.
recipe was from here
