Ingredients
Check off ingredients as you go
Makes about 20 madeleines
- 3 medium eggs
- 110 g (½ cup + 1 Tbsp) light brown sugar
- 15-20 g (about 1 Tbsp) honey
- 150 g (1¼ cups) all-purpose flour (plain flour), sifted
- 125 g (½ cup + 1 Tbsp) melted butter or 100 ml (⅓ cup + 1 Tbsp) neutral oil (sunflower or grapeseed)
- 1 pinch salt (2 g)
- 4 g (1 tsp) baking powder
- a little vanilla (or orange blossom water, the zest of 1 lemon, or whatever flavor you like)
For the chocolate shell (optional)
- 100 g (3.5 oz) chocolate (dark for me)
- 1 Tbsp neutral oil
Melt the butter. Meanwhile, whisk the eggs with the sugar and honey in a large bowl until smooth, then add the flour and baking powder, and finish with the butter (or oil) and your chosen flavoring (zest, orange blossom water…). Mix everything together.
Cover with plastic wrap and chill the batter for several hours (ideally overnight). This is the secret to getting that pretty hump madeleines are known for.
Preheat the oven to 220°C (425°F), fill the molds three-quarters full (about 1 Tbsp each), bake for 3-4 minutes, then lower the oven temperature to 180°C (350°F) and bake for another 5 minutes (keep an eye on them). Unmold immediately and let cool on a wire rack.
Making the chocolate shells for the madeleines
- In the clean madeleine molds, brush on the melted chocolate mixed with the oil, set the madeleines on top of the chocolate and chill for at least an hour. Unmold gently.
Tips and variations
- If you make them with oil, they are very good too, but I recommend flavoring your madeleines a little more generously, with orange blossom water or lemon zest for example, to make up for the missing butter taste.
- For mini madeleines, bake for 2 minutes at 220°C (425°F), then 3 minutes at 180°C (350°F)!
- For chocolate madeleines, replace 25 g of the flour with 25 g of cocoa powder.