Although you will need a special Madeleine baking pan to make this traditional French dessert cookie, the small investment is well worth it because once you taste these light, airy, elegant tea cakes and see how easy they are to make, you’ll want to bake them all the time!
The traditional shape is a seashell. Fun fact: Madeleines were originally baked right in scallop shells! Now you can buy shell-shaped pans like this or like this.
The Madeleine flavors can easily be modified and customized once you have a good basic recipe. I dipped mine in white chocolate and then sprinkled them with almonds to make them a bit more elegant and perfect for my holiday cookie box.
But you can leave them plain and just dust them with confectioners sugar, or add some spices or lemon zest to the batter to create different flavors.
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French Madeleines with White Chocolate and Almonds
Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat and set aside to cool slightly. Brush the Madeleine pan with a bit of the butter, then dust lightly with flour.
Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs and sugar on medium-high speed until light yellow, fluffy and thick, about 5 minutes. Add the vanilla and almond extract.
Gradually sift in the flour mixture, folding gently with a spatula to combine. Slowly pour in the melted butter, folding until just combined.
Cover and chill the batter for at least an hour to allow the flour to fully hydrate. That will make the cakes more tender, and the chilled batter will expand more quickly in the oven to create lighter cakes.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees with the rack in the middle.
Once the batter has finished resting, divide the batter evenly into the molds, using about 1 ½ tablespoons per mold. (I scoop the batter with a small ice cream scoop - no need to spread the batter to fill the mold, it will spread out as the cakes bake.)
Bake, in batches if necessary, until the tops no longer look wet and spring back when lightly pressed, and the edges and bottoms are light golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes.
Immediately unmold the cakes onto a wire cooling rack, using the tip of a butter knife, if necessary, to loosen them. Once the Madeleines have cooled, dust the tops with confectioners sugar.
Melt the white chocolate melting wafers in the top of a double boiler over simmering water.
Once the chocolate is completely melted, stir well to remove any remaining lumps, then dip the bottom of each Madeleine into the melted chocolate, allowing the excess chocolate to drip back into the bowl, then place the cakes on a wire rack set over parchment paper.
Sprinkle some chopped almonds onto the chocolate and let it set for several minutes.
Store leftovers in a covered container at room temperature and eat within 3 or 4 days.
Another fun fact: I used to have a Salmon Faverolle named Madeleine. The Faverolle is a French breed, so I thought the name was appropriate. Not to mention that I thought she kind of resembled a Madeleine cookie!
