Editor’s Note: These are the real deal. A couple of cooking hints–measuring by weight can be a little challenging for the home cook, but its worth investing in a little kitchen scale for recipes like this. More and more bakers (especially good ones) insist that you measure by weight to get the most accurate results. 8oz of eggs is about 4 or 5 eggs, depending on the size.
Buttering the molds almost to excess is also critical if you want the cookies to have the nice shell-imprint. My first two batches stuck a bit. Finally, don’t overfill the molds. The cookies will rise a bit and if they’re too full, the overflow will stick to the pan. The best batch were just filled to the rim of the molds.
Ingredients
8 oz Eggs
8 oz Sugar
¼ tsp Sea salt
8 oz Cake flour
8 oz Unsalted butter (melted)
2 tsp. Lemon zest
1 tsp Orange zest
Yield approx 4-5 dozen madeleines
Process
Using a mixer with whip attachment beat eggs, sugar and salt at high speed until they are very light yellow in color and thick. This may take up to 10 minutes of mixing time.
Gently fold in the sifted flour by hand using a soft rubber spatula. Once the flour is incorporated gently fold in melted unsalted butter, lemon and orange zest. Do not overwork the batter by folding too much.
Well grease traditional Madeleine shell-shaped molds and distribute the batter evenly.
This will work with other small shaped molds as well, such as, mini bundt or mini muffin pans.
Bake 375F for approximately 12-15 minutes or until nice golden color appears. Remove from pans when cool enough to touch, but still warm.
Lightly dust with confectioners sugar when cool.