I made madeleines! I didn’t know I could do that. But I can, so I made Meyer Lemon Madeleines, and boy are they tasty.
Dave’s parents gave me a madeleine pan for Christmas, so today it got its moment in the sun along with some Meyer lemons fresh from the produce shelves at Trader Joe’s.
This is not one of those low fat, cut-back-on-butter recipes. In fact, it started with this:
I melted two sticks of butter, and set them aside to cool.
I got out the flour, sticking with all purpose for this because of the lightness the cookies should have. I whisked it together with baking soda and baking powder.
Then it was time for the lemons. I needed a tablespoon and a half of zest, and two tablespoons of juice. It only took two lemons to get the juice, but it took five to get the zest! I hate going through so many like that, but there wasn’t really another option.
I also kept getting the lemon juice in the cuts in my fingers, which was not especially pleasant, but it was worth it for the smell as I zested and squeezed.
I poured the zest into a bowl with cane sugar and vanilla.
I was a little nervous about the texture when I started mixing, as the vanilla seemed to be clumping with the sugar, but after some more expert spatula work the texture came together and ceased to worry me.
I added in the eggs, one by one, and switched tools per the recipe, moving to a whisk. I whisked carefully after each egg, as well as after adding lemon juice, and then the melted butter. It was a little dodgy at first due to the thickness, but as I added more liquid, things smoothed out and the whisk made a lot more sense to me.
Finally, I added the yogurt, and whisked again. I swapped the whisk out for the return of the spatula, and poured the flour mixture into the lemon-sugar extravaganza.
I made sure everything was incorporated and then let the batter sit for almost ten minutes, per the recipe. I’ve never done that with cookie batter before, but it said to, so I obeyed. (I don’t like authority much, but I do love specificity in recipes, and I trust it.) I used the time to do get started on the dishes.
Finally the timer went off and I did as instructed and scooped the batter into the madeleine tray using a measuring tablespoon. In the end I think I made them too big, but they seemed to match the photo on the recipe.
Well definitely that one on the bottom right had too much batter in it. Oops.
I put them in the oven, and set the timer for 9 minutes, but then faced a problem I couldn’t solve: I had no idea how to tell if they were done. I don’t even know what the texture of a madeleine is supposed to be! Is it crispy? Cakey? Delicate? Puffy? My trusty internet yielded nothing definitive so I just had to wing it.
They seemed ready in about 11 minutes, solid at least, and so I dumped them out of the pan quickly so I could get another batch going.
When the next batch was close to being done, I hustled the cooling cookies off the rack to make room.
They quickly found a fan.
I don’t know what they’re supposed to be like, but they’re lovely. They have a bit of crispness on the outside with a cakey texture on the inside, they’re sweet from sugar and vanilla but get tang and zing from the lemons. I think Proust might remember these too.
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