Gingerbread Madeleines

Here is a recipe I recently tried. I found this from Claire, on The Kitchy Kitchen on Youtube. After watching her video, I knew that I wanted to try out this recipe and make Madeleines for the first time! These are fairly easy, but can be a little tough to master. Claire has a video on how to make it so check that out for any help.

So I will say that after trying this recipe I have decided that I dislike Molasses, a lot. I had never tried it before so I thought why not try it now! So I thought molasses was like a corn syrup or something.. Wrong. It is one of the weirdest things I have ever tried. If you haven’t had molasses before, try it out before trying Claire’s recipe. I made the glaze, then tossed it. I could not get past the taste, and gladly I did try it, because I would not have like it at all and would have ruined all the madeleines. So I decided to just dust some powdered sugar over them as final touch.

This recipe also calls for Browned Butter, another thing I had never done before. I think it turned out alright for the first time. I did not use real butter, I just used margarine, so I think it would be better with real butter. The margarine took longer to brown. I didn’t feel like I was accomplishing anything with browning it because it was almost like I was slowing burning butter, not caramelizing, like it should with real butter. To brown butter you basically but the butter in a pan and start whisking when the butter starts to just melt. Whisk the whole time, let it cook for about 2-3 minutes or until you start to see brown specks on the bottom of the pan, which means its caramelizing. Once you see the brown start, immediately take off the heat, and whisk still about 30 minutes or so, and scrape those brown bits up while whisking. For this recipe it needs to cooled down, so just pour the butter into a bowl to cool till you need it.

                               

This recipe is a bit time consuming, so save this for a weekend experiment. You will need about 5-10 minutes for the browned butter, 30 mins to prep the batter, 1 hour to let the batter set in the fridge, and 10 minutes for baking.

Side note: Madeleines cook faster than you think! Keep an eye on them, because of the variation in pans, ovens, and the batter, they may cook faster or slower. Mine cooked in about 9 minutes, but they could have been in a minute less.

 

Ingredients

9 tablespoons (1 stick plus a tablespoon) unsalted butter, browned and cooled to room temperature, plus additional melted butter for preparing the molds

2 large eggs, at room temperature

2/3 cup white sugar

1 large pinch kosher salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon all purpose flour, plus extra for dusting trays

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoons ground cloves

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon double acting baking powder

 Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon molasses

3 tablespoons milk

 Instructions

Brush the indentations of a madeleine mold with melted butter. Dust with flour, tap off any excess, and place in the fridge or freezer.

 

 

In the bowl of a standing mixer (or with an electric hand mixer), whip the eggs, sugar, salt, and vanilla for 5 minutes until pale and thickened.

Whisk together the flour, spices, and baking powder.

Use a rubber spatula to fold in the flour as you sprinkle it over the batter. Drizzle the browned butter into the batter, a little at a time, while simultaneously folding to incorporate the butter. Fold just until all the butter is incorporated.

Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. (Batter can be chilled for up to 12 hours.)

To bake the madeleines, preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Plop enough batter in the center of each mold that you think will fill it by 3/4′s (it’s about a tablespoon and a half on my trays). Do not spread it. (Looks like deviled eggs ;P)

Bake for 9 to 10 minutes or until the cakes just feel set, (press the cakes lightly with your finger and if it bounces back they’re done. If it stays indented, give it another minute in the oven). While the cakes are baking, make a glaze in a small mixing bowl by stirring together the powdered sugar, molasses, milk, until smooth.

Remove from the oven and tilt the madeleines out onto a cooling rack. The moment they’re cool enough to handle, dip each cake in the glaze, turning them over to make sure both sides are coated and scrape off any excess with your finger. After dipping, rest each one back on the cooking rack, scalloped side up, until the cakes are cool and the glaze has firmed up.

 

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