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Classic French Madeleines (Madeleine Cookies)

A batch of baked madeleines in a baking mold.

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5 from 118 reviews

This guide is the best madeleine recipe for homemade French madeleines. They are perfect in shape, density, and texture, with a delicious taste that can't be matched.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 250 g eggs (5 eggs), room temperature
  • 1 1/4 cups (250 g) granulated sugar
  • 8.8 oz (250 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/3 tsp (12 g) chestnut honey
  • 1/2 vanilla bean
  • 2 tsp (10 g) baking powder
  • 1/2 lemon, zest

Instructions

  1. To make the batter, place eggs, granulated sugar, honey, and scraped seeds of half of the vanilla bean in a large bowl and beat with a hand whisk. Sift flour and baking powder with a flour sifter in a separate bowl. Add dry ingredients to the egg mixture and combine with a whisk or a rubber spatula. Add melted butter (it has to be cooled to 120°F (50°C) and whisk again. Zest half of a lemon with a zester grater, add to the butter mixture, and mix. 
  2. Cover the batter with plastic film on contact and refrigerate overnight, or even better, for 24 hours. The plastic wrap must touch the surface of the batter and not only cover the bowl.
  3. Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Using a pastry brush, butter the cavities of the metal madeleine pan, dust it with flour, and tap any excess flour; there is no need to grease a silicone mold. Using a pastry bag, fill the cavities up to 3/4.
  4. Bake at 425°F (220°C) for 3 minutes. Then, switch off the oven for 8 to 10 minutes. The madeleines will get that famous bump on top. Turn the oven to 320°F (160°C) for the other 3 to 4 minutes.
  5. Remove the madeleines from the oven and cool in the mold for 5 minutes. Then, take them out one by one, simply pushing each cavity from the bottom. Place madeleines on the side, still in the mold, so that they completely cool (do not use a wire rack to avoid its traces on the surface of the madeleines). 

Notes

  1. Do not overheat butter while melting. To avoid this, turn off the heat when half of the butter is melted and mix the butter off the heat.
  2. Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C) and even let it heat for 10 minutes. A well-prepared hot oven is essential to get the bump of madeleines.
  3. Leave the filled mold in the fridge while preheating/heating the oven.
  4. Respect the temperature regimen while baking. The ideal temperature formula is 3 + 8 + 4, where 3 is 3 minutes of baking at 425°F (220°C), "8" is 8 minutes with the oven switched off, and "4" is 4 minutes of baking at 320°F/160 °C. You might need to test your oven and adjust this formula, for example, 3 + 7 + 3 or something different. Adjusting the last baking minutes is essential to prevent madeleines from burning.
  5. Bake cakes on a baking rack in the middle of the oven and not on a baking sheet.
  6. Bake one batch of madeleines (one mold) at a time. After each batch, clean the mold, then bake the rest. Keep the rest of the batter in the fridge between batches.

Nutrition

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