*Updated post at the bottom – scroll down after the recipe 16/11)
*I think I’ve already shoot out a couple of emails with a 10% voucher from BookDepository. If I missed out your email, or… if you’d like it, please leave a comment, I’ll send it to your email*
France’s famous tea cake has made its way here. To be honest, I don’t know what Madeleine was if you asked me before I was interested in pastry or any sorts of cake at all. It was when I went to LCB many years ago that I discovered it. First, it wasn’t sold much here and second, we had this similar type of cake to a Madeleine, somewhat small and spongy, it’s the “Gai Dan Gou” (???)- literal translation would be, Egg Cake. Sorta like the Asian version of Madeleine, or so I think.
So what Madeleine really is, is a small, moist cake with a distinctive shell-shaped acquired from being baked in pans with shell-shaped depressions. Of course there may be some whose shells are a little different in shapes, but still.. shells. They’re best eaten when dipped in tea, during… ingeniously, (haha) during afternoon tea!
And because it’s all dainty, and petite, I decided to make a rose Madeleine. The cake takes on many flavours well because it’s somewhat like a genoise sponge type of thing. So the sky’s the limit for creativity! Plus, it’d be nice to get a rose scented tea after dipping them in!
She sent out for one of those short, plump little cakes called petites madeleines, which look as though they had been moulded in the fluted scallop of a pilgrim’s shell. And soon, mechanically, weary after a dull day with the prospect of a depressing morrow, I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake. No sooner had the warm liquid, and the crumbs with it, touched my palate than a shudder ran through my whole body, and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary changes that were taking place…at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory…
- — Remembrance of Things Past, Volume 1: Swann’s Way.[3]
Rose Madeleines
(makes 12) (it really depends on the mould size)
1 egg
40g caster sugar
pinch of salt
60g flour
1/3 tsp baking powder
zest of 1/2 orange
40g melted butter
8g dried rosebuds
Method
1. Brush the mould with melted butter and flour the madeleine pan, let it rest in the refrigerator till you’re ready to fill in the batter. Remember to brush all the ridges.
2. For the dried roses, you can remove the stems and calyxes. I didn’t at that time, hence mine were a bit greyish. (The 2nd time I use dried roses in baking, I removed the calyxes, then it was not so grey.) So it’s totally up to u. Blend it a couple of times till it’s sorta grounded but not too fine. During the last pulse, add in some caster sugar and blend so it mixes well with the roses.
3. Zest half an orange and add to it. Microplane graters ftw!Once you use them to grate citrus peels, you’d never ever use anything else. It’s pricey but a good investment (and time saver too!)
4. Whisk eggs, sugar, roses and salt for 3-4 minutes until frothy. Sift flour and baking powder into the eggs.
5. Add orange zest into melted butter. Drizzle in egg batter. Fold till batter is well incorporated. Cover the bowl and keep in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour or up to 12 hours. Usually overnight is good.
6. To bake, preheat oven to 220 C.Fill batter in a piping bag.
7. Pipe enough batter in the center of each indentation with enough batter which you think will fill it by 3/4 full. Do not spread it.
10. Bake for 8-9 minutes or until the cakes just feel set. Remove from the oven and tilt the madeleines out onto a cooling rack.
Enjoy!
—– Update on 16/11 —-
Ok so there may be some questions about the bump / hump at the other side of this small cake. From my own understanding, if you bake it fresh (without refrigerating the batter) it doesn’t have any of the “volcano crack” at the top of the bump, unless too much leavening agent is used.
So, how does the ‘volcano crack’ come about. With any batter, when it’s put in the oven, it’s usually the top that heats up first cause it comes more in contact with the heating element. Plus, there usually is another pan at the bottom to prevent the heat from penetrating through. In this Madeleine situation, the shell ridges are at the bottom, and the exposed part (soon to be bump) is the top. So if you realize, Madeleines are baked at a high temperature. When this happens, the top skin of the batter usually cooks much faster than the bottom and there and then, a layer of crust is formed. And while the bottom heats through, the air bubbles heat up and expands in the batter. The bubbles would need a place to go to prevent having too much big air pockets in the cake itself. So hot air = rises to top. Since there’s a layer of crust form on top, it has to burst through like a volcano erupting, hence there’s an obvious opened crack.
I wouldn’t say it’s a rule or an identification of whether it is a good madeleine or not. It could be an accident when this happened, and that people kept on with the culture of the crack. But then again, I’m not sure too. After all, the cake is baked at a high temperature in a short period of time, this makes sure that the moisture doesn’t dry out. Small cake = longer time in oven = dry. So to reverse it, small cake = high temperature = short time = x dry. And chilled cake + high temperature = crack at the tip of the bump.
Haha Did anyone actually understood what I said? OR even bothered with it.
It’s just basic, if you’re facing very badly cracked cakes it could be (actually sometimes when a cake cracks a little, it means that the hot air is trying to escape, you don’t have to die because of it)
a) the ratio of leavening agents
b) the temperature (precisely the top) is too high.
c) you’re putting the cake too near the top heating element.
d) it’s just bad luck HAHAHA
Kidding.
I’ll do a mini experiment and take some photos and show u the results. Visual tends to register faster.
kthxbai
19 thoughts on “Rose Madeleines”
Comments are closed.
lovely madeleines i just bought the madelelines mould from daiso yesterday! will try this out soon!
P.S i had received your email thanks a million!
thanks for the voucher 🙂
i love madeleines! but i dun have this mould. any other mould i can use?
haha nice! i wonder if the dried roses used for tea would be ok to use. i’ll make this when i feel rich, because they’re so expensive ;D
I first got acquainted with Madeleines about 5 years ago when my interest in baking started to hit me big… proust’s epiphany will always make this a special one for me. You went to LCB- so is the hump a requisite like the feet to the macarons?
Perfectly baked madeleines…I am trying to imagine how delicious they are!
Hi Jess, That’s great, I used Daiso’s too as well. it’s a bit smaller than standard madeleine size
Hi Ai wei, well you can use in small tart shells but it would be called… mini cakes, not madeleines 🙂
Hi grub, I actually used the dried rose buds for tea.. Is it very exp in Aus?? It’s only RM10/ packet here and there’s lots!
Hi Shirley, well actually on the 2nd day of school, Madeleine was taught. The bump is a distinctive outlook but not as much as the feet on macarons. After all, it’s the shape of it that’s more important I guess.
Hi 3hungrytummies, quick, go make ’em!
Your madelelines look so perfect and yummy. Very nice clicks and I definitely want to bookmark this. Thanks!
They look perfect! haha yes, they remind me of gai dan gou too!
Gai dan gou = ??? … Kek telur!!?? LOL! Macam kuih bahulu lor … Tapi kuih bahulu and gai dan gou tak ada perisa ros punya lar …
I can never understand why some people (many) consider madeleines cookies!!?? They are cakes to me! (I know for the French, there’s no equivalent of cookie in their world.
I still love that shot lar … Neh, that last one … GOOD!
I just noticed lar … Your site doesn’t read Chinese characters … No wonder the “???”
Finally these pretty madeleines are posted.
So, a hump is not a must… Thanks for telling us that.
PL-Ada bahulu perisa ros la. Can put any perisa u like one la.
This is the ultimate romantic Madeleine, just beautiful! To say it is a treat, would be an understatement!
Hi Anncoo Thanks
HI PigPigCorner, oh yeah
PL, u want perisa rose, add rose lar. Hahah Just like Wendy said. Well cookies = small baked cakes (based in wikipedia and dictionary.com) in certain countries and soft bun in scotland. So, you just have to accept the fact that whatever that is called in States, doesn’t mean that it’s the same worldwide. 🙂 Just like in klang valley, a laksa is .. generally curry based but up north, a laksa is.. assam laksa..
Wendy, oh yeah, my backlogged posts are finishing! lol.. Actually the the small crack at the tip of the bump is the aftermath of chilled batter. Read updated entry. haha
Nazarina, aww thanks 🙂
What a fabulous combination…loved the madelleine banter!
consider to try your recipe for next madelines, sound good
The madeleines look lovely! I’ve been looking everywhere for the grater but still haven’t found one 🙁 Where did you get yours from?
Hi Soo, I bought the grater from a market in Australia actually.. Not sure where to get in M’sia tho..
I’ve got the same madeleine moulds (from Daiso) but I didn’t wipe it dry after wash and they turned rusty, had to dump them into the bin 🙁
Your madeleines look yummy, I’m craving for some now but refuse to buy any as it’s too expensive and I’ve got a really good recipe. Argh!! Drooling!
Looks SO pretty!