Madeleines
Instructions
In this bowl I've put the sugar, the baking powder and the flour, all well sifted. Here I've beaten the eggs... I've melted the butter and let it cool down, and here we have the milk, which we'll need to make the dough neither too liquid nor too thick. Now add the liquids to the powders. After blending everything, we'll put the dough in the fridge covered with cling film for at least an hour.
You should get to this consistency, as you can see it's not too liquid and not too thick. I've added also the almond extract and as I said before we'll place everything in the fridge. Only in this way, after baking the madeleines, you'll get the characteristic small bump on top. So, now, in the fridge!
1 h -- fridge
After taking out from the fridge, the dough has hardened so we can pour it into our mould for madeleines. My mould measures 3 by 2 inches, so you'll get a cookie the same size, but you can buy smaller moulds with which you'll get smaller madeleines, called petit madeleine or madeleinette. So butter and flour it well, then fill it with the dough. Be careful not to fill it too much, no more than of the way full, because if the dough overflows, it won't take the traditional shape of a shell. So fill the mould with the dough, which is enough for about 24 madeleines... of course you must fill it twice or use 2 moulds; bake everything at 390F for the first 10 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350F and continue to bake until the madeleines are golden brown, with their traditional small bump.
10 min. -- 390F (200C)
10 min. -- 350F (180C)
These are the madeleines ready to be tasted. I remind you that we added the almond extract, but if you prefer you can use the vanilla extract or the grated lemon zest. Besides, starting from the same recipe, you can subtract 2 tablespoons of flour and add the same quantity of bitter cocoa, in order to make the chocolate madeleines. Do not flour the mould, but sprinkle with cocoa powder in order to avoid those annoying white stripes on the cookie surface.
