These French treats are the size of a cookie with the texture of a cake, molded into decorative shells with the help of a special pan.
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00:00Hey everybody, it's Brooke in the Delish Kitchen studios.
00:03I'm gonna let you guys in on a little secret.
00:06Madeleines are actually not hard to make at all.
00:09That's right, French people have been lying to you
00:10this whole time.
00:12This delicious afternoon pastry, simple.
00:15It only has a few steps.
00:16Our version has a little bit of brown butter in it
00:18to take it to the next level.
00:20I'm gonna show you guys how to nail it.
00:21To get started with this madeleine batter,
00:23we're gonna do the most boring step first,
00:25which is whisking together all of our dry ingredients.
00:27Got flour, salt, and baking powder.
00:30Literally just gonna dump those into a bowl
00:34and give those a quick whisk.
00:36The best thing about a good madeleine
00:37is that signature light as air,
00:39fluffy texture that they have.
00:41And to get that texture, we can do two things.
00:44The first thing is adding a little bit of chemical leavener
00:46in the form of baking powder, which we've done.
00:48The second and probably most important part
00:51is incorporating enough air into the batter.
00:53To do that, we start with a little bit of egg
00:55and sugar in a stand mixer.
00:58We're gonna whip the devil out of it
00:59until it's nice and airy and foamy and ribbony.
01:02I think there's a name for that method, actually,
01:04now that I think, yes, the foaming method.
01:06That's what it's called.
01:07We're gonna do a foaming method
01:08to get these madeleines nice and airy and fluffy.
01:10We're gonna beat these eggs and sugar together
01:12for about 10 minutes until the volume has tripled in size.
01:1610 minutes might feel like a long time.
01:18You're gonna be like, eight is enough, seven is enough.
01:20Please listen to me, do the full 10 minutes
01:22because we want the batter to have enough air in it
01:24so you have nice, fluffy madeleines.
01:26You don't want flat madeleines
01:27because then you're gonna blame me
01:28and I don't have time for that.
01:29I love adding flavor wherever I can to a recipe,
01:32so this melted butter situation
01:34was the perfect opportunity for these madeleines.
01:36Madeleines typically do have melted butter in them,
01:38but I was like, why not take it a step further
01:40and make it a brown butter
01:41because who doesn't like brown butter?
01:43So in a small saucepan, we are going to start
01:46with just six tablespoons of unsalted butter.
01:50We're gonna let these six tablespoons of butter melt
01:52just until the milk solids start to turn brown
01:55and they'll start to smell really toasty
01:57and kind of like the scent of pecans or almonds
01:59will be in the air.
02:01It's only gonna take like three or four minutes,
02:02so keep an eye on it
02:03because you definitely don't want those milk solids to burn
02:06because then that's gonna be a bad time.
02:08It'll be super bitter
02:09and nobody will wanna eat your madeleines,
02:11which would be so sad.
02:12I love using a rubber spatula to make brown butter
02:15because it helps you scrape the bits
02:16off the bottom of the pan before they start to burn.
02:19To me, it's better than using a wooden spoon or a whisk
02:22because I can really get into all the nooks and crannies
02:24of the pan and make sure everything is browning evenly.
02:26Last but not least, I'm gonna add two tablespoons
02:29of just regular unsalted butter to this.
02:32This is gonna help cool down the brown butter a little bit
02:34before I add it to the rest of the batter.
02:37I don't wanna add that piping hot butter
02:39to my room temperature batter.
02:40So we're just gonna whisk that
02:41until the solid butter melts.
02:43But also, if you don't really wanna use brown butter,
02:46if you're like, girl, that's too much work
02:48for not enough flavor, that's fine.
02:50You can use melted butter, that's okay.
02:52I won't be mad.
02:54It's time to add a little bit of flavor to this batter
02:56and we're gonna do that in the form
02:57of two of my absolute favorite flavorings,
02:59which are almond extract and a little bit of orange zest.
03:03We're gonna add both of those to our egg and sugar mixture
03:05and beat until they're just incorporated.
03:07When you're folding in the dry ingredients,
03:08we wanna do this in three additions,
03:10so you'll be adding about a third cup
03:12of the dry mix for each addition.
03:15Reason we're doing that is so that the flour
03:17has a chance to actually hydrate in the batter
03:19so you don't have any weird clumps or pockets of flour.
03:22When you're adding the flour in,
03:23one thing you definitely wanna make sure you do
03:26is fold it in gently.
03:28We spent all that time incorporating the air bubbles
03:30into the batter and the last thing you wanna do
03:32is deflate them by stirring the batter too vigorously.
03:35So make sure you have a nice, gentle folding motion
03:37instead of like a figure eight stirring motion.
03:40We've got the brown butter all folded in.
03:42Last thing we need to do before these Madeleines
03:44go into the oven is let them chill for about 30 minutes.
03:48So we're gonna cover with plastic wrap
03:51and let these hang out in the refrigerator
03:52for a little bit.
03:53This is a Madeleine pan, of course.
03:56You've got all that adorable fluting
03:59and the nice curly ridges up there.
04:00They're supposed to look like seashells
04:02and that's exactly what they look like.
04:04Having a Madeleine pan is pretty essential
04:06to making Madeleines in this classic shape,
04:08but I've got another secret for you guys.
04:11You can make Madeleines in any pan.
04:13Well, not any pan, but you can make them in a muffin pan
04:15if you don't have a Madeleine pan
04:17and you would still get a delicious result
04:19just in a slightly different shape.
04:21To keep the Madeleine pan from sticking to the Madeleines,
04:23I'm just gonna drizzle a little bit of oil
04:25into each one of these little wells.
04:28I'm gonna brush it with a pastry brush
04:29to get a nice, even coating.
04:31Since this has all those extra ridges and pockets,
04:33you need a pastry brush to work the oil in there
04:36because you don't want any dry, bald spots
04:38where you don't have oil.
04:39Oil's in the little mold,
04:41so now I'm just going to sprinkle
04:43a little bit of all-purpose flour.
04:47I'm kinda just gonna go all over the place
04:49to make sure I'm getting even coverage.
04:52Then I'll tap out the excess.
04:54When you're prepping your pan,
04:55you wanna make sure you use a neutral oil
04:56that you brush in there.
04:58You might be tempted to grab a can of nonstick spray.
05:01I would caution you to avoid doing that.
05:02Nonstick spray in this kind of recipe
05:04tends to really brown on the pan
05:06and it might give you some weird, brown, oily splotches
05:09on your Madeleines,
05:11which is not gonna look very appetizing,
05:12so just stick with a regular old neutral oil
05:14and you'll be good.
05:15The pan's all coated,
05:16so we're gonna stick this in the freezer
05:17for about 10 minutes.
05:19Reason for that is because we want this
05:20to be super duper cold,
05:22just like the batter's gonna be really cold
05:24right when it goes in the oven.
05:25That's gonna help the batter expand and rise
05:28and get nice and puffy,
05:29so the coldness will encourage that.
05:31We're gonna pop this pan in the freezer
05:33for just about 10 minutes
05:34before we start filling it with our Madeleine batter.
05:37Reason for that is having a nice, cold pan
05:39and nice, cold batter will encourage that batter
05:42to puff up nice and big and dramatic
05:44when it goes into that really hot oven.
05:46Our pan and our batter are both ice cold,
05:48so I'm going to use this little scooper
05:51to dollop about a tablespoon,
05:53like a heaping tablespoon,
05:54into each of these Madeleine wells.
05:56What are these called, by the way?
05:57I call them clicky scoopers.
05:58Got the cold batter in the cold Madeleine pan,
06:01so all that's left to do is to bake these at 375
06:04for about 10 minutes
06:05or until the edges start to turn really golden brown.
06:07First of all, let's just talk about how freaking cute, okay?
06:12Those scalloped edges came out so beautifully,
06:15and you can see all those lovely little ridges
06:17because of how we prepared our pan.
06:20And then just the perfect size for an afternoon snack.
06:23One of my favorite things to do with Madeleines,
06:25especially one with this flavor profile
06:27of orange and almond,
06:28is to give them a dunk in some white chocolate
06:30before a serving.
06:32One, it's absolutely beautiful,
06:33and then two, you get a little bit of extra sweetness
06:36because these on their own aren't super sweet,
06:38but a little bit of white chocolate,
06:40ah, so delightful.
06:41And honestly, one of the only times
06:43that I like using white chocolate.
06:44Y'all, I have been transported to Paris.
06:47I feel like I'm sitting outside of a cafe
06:50in one of those little iron chairs
06:52staring at the Eiffel Tower.
06:54This is so incredibly perfect.
06:56I love the bit of orange zest in there,
06:58and I love almond-y dessert,
06:59so you can really taste that almond coming through,
07:01and that brown butter and the almond extract
07:03are just like holding hands
07:05and really playing very well together in this Madeleine.
07:08So now I'm gonna dip it in coffee
07:10because I feel like I deserve that.
07:12The texture on these is just,
07:14it's so incredibly coffee-dunk friendly
07:17because it's nice and light and airy,
07:18so you can dunk for a couple seconds
07:20without it falling apart and dropping into your coffee cup,
07:23which is my least favorite thing in the world.
07:26But they're also just so delicate and so dainty.
07:28They're the kind of thing you could eat four or five of
07:30and not realize what you've done
07:32until you have a bunch of crumbs left behind.
07:34These are absolutely perfect for a brunch,
07:36afternoon snack, dessert,
07:39really any time of day or night
07:40that you crave something that's sweet but not too sweet,
07:43these Madeleines should be your go-to.
07:45And now you see how easy they are to make.
07:46If you're looking for more deceptively simple
07:49afternoon snacks just like this one,
07:51keep it right here at delish.com.