Madeleines Are The Easiest French Dessert To Bake

Delish

These French treats are the size of a cookie with the texture of a cake, molded into decorative shells with the help of a special pan.

Transcript

00:00Hey everybody, it's Brooke in the Delish Kitchen studios.

00:03I'm gonna let you guys in on a little secret.

00:06Madeleines are actually not hard to make at all.

00:09That's right, French people have been lying to you

00:10this whole time.

00:12This delicious afternoon pastry, simple.

00:15It only has a few steps.

00:16Our version has a little bit of brown butter in it

00:18to take it to the next level.

00:20I'm gonna show you guys how to nail it.

00:21To get started with this madeleine batter,

00:23we're gonna do the most boring step first,

00:25which is whisking together all of our dry ingredients.

00:27Got flour, salt, and baking powder.

00:30Literally just gonna dump those into a bowl

00:34and give those a quick whisk.

00:36The best thing about a good madeleine

00:37is that signature light as air,

00:39fluffy texture that they have.

00:41And to get that texture, we can do two things.

00:44The first thing is adding a little bit of chemical leavener

00:46in the form of baking powder, which we've done.

00:48The second and probably most important part

00:51is incorporating enough air into the batter.

00:53To do that, we start with a little bit of egg

00:55and sugar in a stand mixer.

00:58We're gonna whip the devil out of it

00:59until it's nice and airy and foamy and ribbony.

01:02I think there's a name for that method, actually,

01:04now that I think, yes, the foaming method.

01:06That's what it's called.

01:07We're gonna do a foaming method

01:08to get these madeleines nice and airy and fluffy.

01:10We're gonna beat these eggs and sugar together

01:12for about 10 minutes until the volume has tripled in size.

01:1610 minutes might feel like a long time.

01:18You're gonna be like, eight is enough, seven is enough.

01:20Please listen to me, do the full 10 minutes

01:22because we want the batter to have enough air in it

01:24so you have nice, fluffy madeleines.

01:26You don't want flat madeleines

01:27because then you're gonna blame me

01:28and I don't have time for that.

01:29I love adding flavor wherever I can to a recipe,

01:32so this melted butter situation

01:34was the perfect opportunity for these madeleines.

01:36Madeleines typically do have melted butter in them,

01:38but I was like, why not take it a step further

01:40and make it a brown butter

01:41because who doesn't like brown butter?

01:43So in a small saucepan, we are going to start

01:46with just six tablespoons of unsalted butter.

01:50We're gonna let these six tablespoons of butter melt

01:52just until the milk solids start to turn brown

01:55and they'll start to smell really toasty

01:57and kind of like the scent of pecans or almonds

01:59will be in the air.

02:01It's only gonna take like three or four minutes,

02:02so keep an eye on it

02:03because you definitely don't want those milk solids to burn

02:06because then that's gonna be a bad time.

02:08It'll be super bitter

02:09and nobody will wanna eat your madeleines,

02:11which would be so sad.

02:12I love using a rubber spatula to make brown butter

02:15because it helps you scrape the bits

02:16off the bottom of the pan before they start to burn.

02:19To me, it's better than using a wooden spoon or a whisk

02:22because I can really get into all the nooks and crannies

02:24of the pan and make sure everything is browning evenly.

02:26Last but not least, I'm gonna add two tablespoons

02:29of just regular unsalted butter to this.

02:32This is gonna help cool down the brown butter a little bit

02:34before I add it to the rest of the batter.

02:37I don't wanna add that piping hot butter

02:39to my room temperature batter.

02:40So we're just gonna whisk that

02:41until the solid butter melts.

02:43But also, if you don't really wanna use brown butter,

02:46if you're like, girl, that's too much work

02:48for not enough flavor, that's fine.

02:50You can use melted butter, that's okay.

02:52I won't be mad.

02:54It's time to add a little bit of flavor to this batter

02:56and we're gonna do that in the form

02:57of two of my absolute favorite flavorings,

02:59which are almond extract and a little bit of orange zest.

03:03We're gonna add both of those to our egg and sugar mixture

03:05and beat until they're just incorporated.

03:07When you're folding in the dry ingredients,

03:08we wanna do this in three additions,

03:10so you'll be adding about a third cup

03:12of the dry mix for each addition.

03:15Reason we're doing that is so that the flour

03:17has a chance to actually hydrate in the batter

03:19so you don't have any weird clumps or pockets of flour.

03:22When you're adding the flour in,

03:23one thing you definitely wanna make sure you do

03:26is fold it in gently.

03:28We spent all that time incorporating the air bubbles

03:30into the batter and the last thing you wanna do

03:32is deflate them by stirring the batter too vigorously.

03:35So make sure you have a nice, gentle folding motion

03:37instead of like a figure eight stirring motion.

03:40We've got the brown butter all folded in.

03:42Last thing we need to do before these Madeleines

03:44go into the oven is let them chill for about 30 minutes.

03:48So we're gonna cover with plastic wrap

03:51and let these hang out in the refrigerator

03:52for a little bit.

03:53This is a Madeleine pan, of course.

03:56You've got all that adorable fluting

03:59and the nice curly ridges up there.

04:00They're supposed to look like seashells

04:02and that's exactly what they look like.

04:04Having a Madeleine pan is pretty essential

04:06to making Madeleines in this classic shape,

04:08but I've got another secret for you guys.

04:11You can make Madeleines in any pan.

04:13Well, not any pan, but you can make them in a muffin pan

04:15if you don't have a Madeleine pan

04:17and you would still get a delicious result

04:19just in a slightly different shape.

04:21To keep the Madeleine pan from sticking to the Madeleines,

04:23I'm just gonna drizzle a little bit of oil

04:25into each one of these little wells.

04:28I'm gonna brush it with a pastry brush

04:29to get a nice, even coating.

04:31Since this has all those extra ridges and pockets,

04:33you need a pastry brush to work the oil in there

04:36because you don't want any dry, bald spots

04:38where you don't have oil.

04:39Oil's in the little mold,

04:41so now I'm just going to sprinkle

04:43a little bit of all-purpose flour.

04:47I'm kinda just gonna go all over the place

04:49to make sure I'm getting even coverage.

04:52Then I'll tap out the excess.

04:54When you're prepping your pan,

04:55you wanna make sure you use a neutral oil

04:56that you brush in there.

04:58You might be tempted to grab a can of nonstick spray.

05:01I would caution you to avoid doing that.

05:02Nonstick spray in this kind of recipe

05:04tends to really brown on the pan

05:06and it might give you some weird, brown, oily splotches

05:09on your Madeleines,

05:11which is not gonna look very appetizing,

05:12so just stick with a regular old neutral oil

05:14and you'll be good.

05:15The pan's all coated,

05:16so we're gonna stick this in the freezer

05:17for about 10 minutes.

05:19Reason for that is because we want this

05:20to be super duper cold,

05:22just like the batter's gonna be really cold

05:24right when it goes in the oven.

05:25That's gonna help the batter expand and rise

05:28and get nice and puffy,

05:29so the coldness will encourage that.

05:31We're gonna pop this pan in the freezer

05:33for just about 10 minutes

05:34before we start filling it with our Madeleine batter.

05:37Reason for that is having a nice, cold pan

05:39and nice, cold batter will encourage that batter

05:42to puff up nice and big and dramatic

05:44when it goes into that really hot oven.

05:46Our pan and our batter are both ice cold,

05:48so I'm going to use this little scooper

05:51to dollop about a tablespoon,

05:53like a heaping tablespoon,

05:54into each of these Madeleine wells.

05:56What are these called, by the way?

05:57I call them clicky scoopers.

05:58Got the cold batter in the cold Madeleine pan,

06:01so all that's left to do is to bake these at 375

06:04for about 10 minutes

06:05or until the edges start to turn really golden brown.

06:07First of all, let's just talk about how freaking cute, okay?

06:12Those scalloped edges came out so beautifully,

06:15and you can see all those lovely little ridges

06:17because of how we prepared our pan.

06:20And then just the perfect size for an afternoon snack.

06:23One of my favorite things to do with Madeleines,

06:25especially one with this flavor profile

06:27of orange and almond,

06:28is to give them a dunk in some white chocolate

06:30before a serving.

06:32One, it's absolutely beautiful,

06:33and then two, you get a little bit of extra sweetness

06:36because these on their own aren't super sweet,

06:38but a little bit of white chocolate,

06:40ah, so delightful.

06:41And honestly, one of the only times

06:43that I like using white chocolate.

06:44Y'all, I have been transported to Paris.

06:47I feel like I'm sitting outside of a cafe

06:50in one of those little iron chairs

06:52staring at the Eiffel Tower.

06:54This is so incredibly perfect.

06:56I love the bit of orange zest in there,

06:58and I love almond-y dessert,

06:59so you can really taste that almond coming through,

07:01and that brown butter and the almond extract

07:03are just like holding hands

07:05and really playing very well together in this Madeleine.

07:08So now I'm gonna dip it in coffee

07:10because I feel like I deserve that.

07:12The texture on these is just,

07:14it's so incredibly coffee-dunk friendly

07:17because it's nice and light and airy,

07:18so you can dunk for a couple seconds

07:20without it falling apart and dropping into your coffee cup,

07:23which is my least favorite thing in the world.

07:26But they're also just so delicate and so dainty.

07:28They're the kind of thing you could eat four or five of

07:30and not realize what you've done

07:32until you have a bunch of crumbs left behind.

07:34These are absolutely perfect for a brunch,

07:36afternoon snack, dessert,

07:39really any time of day or night

07:40that you crave something that's sweet but not too sweet,

07:43these Madeleines should be your go-to.

07:45And now you see how easy they are to make.

07:46If you're looking for more deceptively simple

07:49afternoon snacks just like this one,

07:51keep it right here at delish.com.

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