Lemon Madeleine Recipe and Tips

By Mélissa Mathieu

The French madeleine is a beloved breakfast item of many food lovers around the world. This is the story that inspired this recipe:

My office is located in Limoges, a city in west-central France. A wonderful  place famous for its Renaissance enamels, a few years ago I brought madeleines to a friend's birthday party and when she took a bite she found them so tasty and loved them so much that now I always make madeleines for her birthday. I then made them for my other friend at the office and she loved them too. So much so that she asked me if I could make them again for the whole office!.

I was like "Of course I will make madeleines. I always make madeleines! (And besides I like cooking so much that it wasn’t a chore at all). So anyway, I got back to work and the idea of making madeleines got stuck into my head. Then I started thinking about what could I do differently like adding lemon or anise (I didn’t get anything done at work), so I made different versions of  madeleines for the office, the result by unanimous decision: everyone loved my lemon madeleines the best (I thought to myself that I should get a raise for this!).

I'm sure that pretty much everyone can imagine their own versions of French madeleine and so should you. For a lovely change of pace lemon is added to the madeleine, I hope that this recipe will lead you to the perfect madeleine.

The following recipe makes a lemon madeleine that is lusciously moist, with a golden brown top. A wonderful lightly sweet treat to bring out the flavor in your favorite morning tea.

Lemon Madeleines Recipe

Ingredients:

3 large eggs

1⁄2 cup granulated sugar 

150ml oil

1⁄2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 cups all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1⁄2 tsp baking powder

2 tablespoons honey

1⁄2 tablespoons  lemon zest

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Special equipment

A madeleine pan

Melt the butter, brown sugar and honey in a medium saucepan over low heat. Make sure to keep stirring with a heatproof spatula or wooden spoon until everything is combined. Remove from heat.

Mix the sugar, salt, flour and baking powder in a large bowl and combine well with a whisk. In the middle of the dry ingredients add the eggs, one by one. 

Remember to use room temperature eggs, so that the batter stays smooth.

Once the batter is incorporated, slowly whisk in the warm sugar and butter mixture. The batter should be uniform and shiny with no lumps. Whisk in the lemon zest and juice. The batter should be little runny and smooth, kind of like a pancake batter. Cover with plastic wrap, so a skin does not develop. Cool down and let rest overnight in the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 375 ° F (190 ° C)

Spray evenly with cooking spray in every groove of the madeleine pan. Pipe the Madeleine batter into the cavities to fill up a third of the way up.

Bake the madeleines on the middle rack for approximately 4 minutes. Rotate the pan 180 degrees when you see the batter bubble up in the middle. Bake for another 4  minutes, until golden brown.

With cooling rack ready, unmold the madeleines. Tap against your work surface the corner or sides of the madeleine pan so that they all fall off easily, place the in cooling rack.

Dust with icing sugar, and serve immediately.

Are you the home chef of a family who would like to make this for breakfast at home? Is there one particular madeleine that you would like for me to create a recipe?

Tips 

Lower the temperature of a convection oven at 350 ° F (175 ° C).

Add orange zest and crush pecans for a nice twist

For the holidays consider adding anise and cinnamon or a touch of powder ginger.