Madeleines – Fragrant French Sweet Treats
·Whip the egg foam
Using an electric mixer, whip the eggs with sugar and a pinch of salt until you get a smooth, pale yellow foam. Add the lemon zest and the plain flour, which you've already mixed with baking powder in a separate bowl.
Melt the butter
While mixing the batter, melt the butter on the stove, then add it to the batter as well.
Let the batter rest
Finally, flavour the batter with orange blossom water, which gives it a wonderful fragrance. Mix into a fairly thick batter and let it rest in the fridge for two hours.
Prepare the moulds
If you don't have a madeleine mould and don't want to buy one just yet, you can bake the batter in mini muffin tins instead. Grease the mould with butter and dust it with fine semolina flour.
Fill the moulds and shape a dip
Add a little batter to each mould (about half a tablespoon worked for me), so the cavity isn't completely full.
Bake until the hump appears
Place in an oven preheated to 200 °C. Bake for about 5 minutes. By the end of this time, a little hump should pop up in the middle of each madeleine. Every proper madeleine is supposed to have one, so don't worry if it happens!
Finish baking and turn out onto a rack
Now lower the temperature to 150 °C and bake for another 5 minutes. Turn the madeleines out of the mould immediately and let them cool on a wire rack.
Finish with a dusting of sugar
Dust with sugar and enjoy. They're truly perfect!
