Madeleines: Falling in love in Paris

The aroma travels up your nostrils and you’re in a daze. You imagine yourself sitting at a café in Paris, waiting for the neatly dressed waiter who also politely greeted you, to bring your coffee and madeleines. You take a bite, and the subtle hint of lemon zest hits the back of your tongue, while the two drops of honey gives your sweet tooth a royal hug. Your mind still transfixed on the waiter who beamed at you, you wonder whether it is a part of his job to throw Elysian smiles. After pondering over the steamy cup of coffee, you decide that you’re special. You’re beautiful and he likes you, which is why he smiled at you. He looks at you again, oh wait, he is flirting now. You deliberately take an extra long minute to finish; you don’t want this to be over. He takes off his apron and walks towards you. You’re smart, you have connected the dots – his shift is over and now he is going to ask you out on a date, and you will stroll down the faintly lit lane with him. It’s the city of love, and anything is possible; you convince yourself.

With every step he takes, your heart beats a little faster. He smiles again, and your face lights up like a million bolts. You’re at the witching hour of your fantasy, so the entrance of a certain other male goes unnoticed. Its only when your crush kisses the other guy, you finally take notice him.

Your crush is gay.

Now that the waiter is out of the way, it’s my time to come out of the closet – I am obsessed with French desserts. And songs. And the boys of course.

Okay I thought that I would look really cool if I start with a story, but the truth is I don’t know how to end it haha. So I will just skip to the part where I give you MY FAVOURITE Madeleine recipe.

It has been adapted from Rachel Khoo’s recipe, madeleines à la crème au citron. Here is my version:

Over 2 hourspreparation time

30 mins to 1 hourcooking time

Ingredients

For the madeleines

• 3 free-rangeeggs
• 130g/4½ozsugar
• 200g/7ozplain flour
• 10g/¼ozbaking powder
• 1 unwaxedlemon, finely grated zest only
• 20g/¾ozhoney
• 4 tbspmilk
• 200g/7ozbutter, melted and cooled
• 2 free-rangeegg yolks

For the Icing:

• ½ cup cream cheese (I use Philadelphia cream cheese) I found the taste of the cream cheese to suit better with my version of the Madeleine.
• ¼ cup confectioner’s sugar
• Raspberry Jam

Preparation method

1. Beat the eggs with the sugar until pale and frothy. Put the flour and baking powder into a separate bowl and add the lemon zest.
2. Mix the honey and milk with the cooled butter, then add to the eggs. In two batches, fold in the flour. Cover and leave to rest in the fridge for a few hours, or overnight.
3. When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5. Butter and flour a 12-shell madeleine tin (or bake them into muffin pans as I did. Fill the cupcake wrappers 2/3 its length and bake until it feels firm to touch.
4. Beat the cream cheese with the powdered sugar to make the icing. You can add the raspberry jam with the icing if you like, but I like to keep my jam separate.

Note: I also once used this recipe to make a 8X8 sheet cake. However, I recommend the shell-shaped pan or the cupcake version.

Optional

Lemon Curd

Meanwhile, make the lemon curd. Put the lemon zest and juice, salt, sugar and butter into a small saucepan and heat gently until the sugar and butter have melted. Remove from the heat.

Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl, then add to the pan and whisk vigorously. Return the pan to a low heat and whisk constantly as the curd starts to thicken. Don’t stop whisking or the eggs will curdle (if the curd starts to boil, take off the heat). Once the curd thickens and releases a bubble or two, remove from the heat and pass the curd through a sieve into a bowl. Place cling film in direct contact with the curd and refrigerate for at least an hour, preferably overnight.

For the original recipe:

Rachel Khoo: Little Paris Kitchen