Madeleines instantly take me back to holidays in France with my family as a child. I’m standing in a wet costume and towel in the sun, with prune-like finger tips, just out of the swimming pool where we’d been playing for the last five or so hours.
Rich and buttery whilst beautifully light and spongy, these French delicacies, distinctive by their oh-so-stylish scalloped shape were the ultimate treat after all that hard work of game-playing. They were synonymous with our trips and always bought in the supermarket in the first big food shop. My love for them hasn’t faltered after all these years and after spotting a battered but beautiful tin whilst on holiday in Marrakech of all places, I was desperate to get in the kitchen and try making my own.
You would never guess these Madeleines are gluten free and FODMAP friendly. I asked you lovely lot on my Instagram (@shecanteatwhat) what flavour you’d like me to test and I managed to narrow it down to three: dreamy vanilla, sweet rose and zesty lemon. Pick your favourite flavour to incorporate into the batter, or divide the batter between three bowls and make smaller batches of each.
The recipe that follows is simple, but you must make sure you follow all of the steps for the perfect texture! As well as carefully greasing and flouring the tin, make sure you chill the batter for at least an hour – three if you can – before you bake it. I know it’s a bit of a faff and we all want Madeleines asap, but I promise it makes all the difference. The batter turns wonderfully doughy in the fridge, it’s magic. Just think: how great also that you can make the batter ahead of time and have the tin prepped and ready, so that when friends come over, you can just casually spoon the batter into the tin and pop some Madeleines in the oven. In just ten minutes your house will smell glorious – hey new Nigella!
Can’t wait to hear what you think. And I hope you’ve been enjoying the sunshine (and the Royal Wedding ah!) if you’re in the UK x
Recipes notes:
Recipe adapted from BBC Good Food
Pick your favourite flavour listed below, or divide the batter between three bowls and make a smaller batch of each.
Ingredients
For the batter:
200g butter, plus a extra for greasing the madeleine tin
60ml almond milk
20g maple syrup, or honey if you can tolerate it
3 eggs
130g golden caster sugar
50g ground almonds
150g gluten free plain flour blend, plus extra for dusting
1 teaspoon gluten free baking powder
For the flavourings:
Zest of 2 lemons, finely grated OR
2 teaspoons rose extract, plus edible rose petals for decoration if desired, OR
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Method
Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat, then leave to cool. Once cooled, add the milk and maple syrup, stir and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together until really light and fluffy and then add the butter, milk and maple mix and whisk once more until well combined. Add the ground almonds, gluten free flour and baking powder to the bowl and fold in gently until there are no more streaks of dry ingredients.
Pick your flavour of choice: vanilla, lemon or rose, and stir the zest or extract into the mixture. Cover the bowl of batter and place in the fridge for 3 hours. This is a really important step – don’t skip it!
When you are ready to bake the Madeleines, pre-heat the oven to 190C, and butter and flour your Madeleine tin. Put a spoonful of batter into each Madeleine shell. Bake for 5 minutes at 190C, then turn the oven down to 160C and bake for a further 5 minutes. Transfer the Madeleines to a wire rack to cool.
Repeat the baking process until all of your mixture is used up, washing, drying, greasing and flouring your Madeleine tin in between batches (worth it, I promise).
These are best served warm from the oven, but will keep in an airtight container for a couple of days.
