This recipe was used during our Cakes Course last year. I had such fun picking out perfect tiny cakes that we could make in the hour and a half classes. Bake time can be quite constricting for cooking classes. I am so glad this led to a deep dive on madeleines and madeleine baking for me. For those of you who don’t know, madeleines are small sponge cakes baked in a specific mold shaped like a shell. You can buy a pan that looks almost like a cupcake pan, but instead of round wells, there are shell shaped ones. They originated in France, and have since spread across the globe.

I love that these little cakes are so beautiful on their own and don’t require any icing. You can dip them in a chocolate glaze or dust them with powdered sugar if you like, but I most love them fresh out of the oven so that they are warm with a nice crisp bite on the outside and soft and sweet on the inside. They are ready to come out as soon as you start to see the edges browning lightly. We leave them in the pan to cool slightly, which creates a nice shell on the bottom of the cake from the residual heat of the pan.

Marcel Proust has a story in “Remembrance of Things Past” during which he takes a bite of madeleine that was soaked in tea and is transported back to a childhood memory of his aunt giving him madeleines dipped in tea. He is flooded with memories of the time and place during which this happened. I love this thought, because there is something special about a food that touches our heart in ways we don’t always understand. Food is not just food. Food is often how we relate to our family. Food is full of emotions and memories. Food is nourishment, yes, but also whimsy, curiosity, independence, skill, self knowledge, self-efficacy, joy, and pride. I teach cooking classes for students, because I want them to experience how multi-faceted food can be. In childhood, food can be stressful. It can be a battle for control. It can feel isolating if you don’t like what all your family members seem to like so easily. Building culinary skills is one way students can start to experience the joy of cooking and eating again. If you know how to cook it, you can make food exactly how you want it to taste. That is so beautiful and powerful to me.

One of the many reasons I love madeleines is that you can prepare the batter the night before. Then you just scoop or pipe it into it’s little pan and pop it in the oven. When it is dinner time or if you are having guests, they will walk into the most delicious smell and be served nice crispy madeleines.

If you have only tried store bought madeleines, I implore you to try out this recipe. They are so much better!

Madeleines

Ingredients

10 Tablespoons butter

1 cup all purpose flour

⅔ cup sugar

3 eggs

½ teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

Chocolate Glaze

¼ cup corn syrup

¾ cup sugar

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 375*F. 
2. Melt your butter. 
3. Whisk your flour to make it nice and fluffy. 
4. Add your sugar, eggs, and salt to a medium bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer. Mix until it is light yellow and has thickened up. 
5. Add your vanilla to the egg mixture and mix until combined. 
6. Add half of your flour to the egg mixture and lightly fold in. see note
7. Add half of your melted butter and gently fold in. 
8. Add the rest of your flour and fold in. Add the rest of your butter and fold in. 
9. Refrigerate your batter for at least 10 minutes, or until it is thick. Up to 45 minutes. 
10. Spray your madeleine pan with non-stick cooking spray. 
11. Scoop 1 Tablespoon of batter into each well. 
12. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until madeleines are lightly browned. 
13. Cool your madeleines while they are still in the pan for a few minutes, and then remove and cool them on a wire rack or plate. 

Chocolate Glaze

1. In a small, heavy bottomed pot, combine your corn syrup, ¼ cup water, and your sugar. Heat until wildly boiling.
2. Remove your pan from the heat and add your chocolate. 
3. Stir until smooth. 
4. Place a piece of parchment paper out on your counter.
5. Dip in your madeleines to coat half of them in chocolate. Set down on your parchment paper to cool and harden.

Notes

• Folding in is a technique that allows you to combine ingredients without losing all the air bubbles you made from whisking or mixing. If you just stir things in, it would squash all the light fluffyness you created. Hold your spatula so that it is perpendicular to the counter and swipe it down into your batter in the center of the bowl. Go all the way to the bottom of the bowl. Swoop it along the bottom of the bowl and along the side until it comes back out. Turn your bowl a quarter turn, and do this again. Repeat until your ingredients are combined. 
• These madeleines are also delicious simpy dusted in powdered sugar.