Recipe: Madeleines

I was in Paris recently and was having tea with a friend when I realized the madeleines the cafe had were absolutely inferior to my own version. I shared this opinion with my friend and she urged me to send her the recipe, but I also thought I'd share with the public at large, to avoid having to suffer eating inadequate madeleines! This recipe makes 14 madeleines (or 30 small ones). They are best accompanied by excellent tea and good friends!

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup agave nectar (or 1/3 cup superfine caster sugar) 
• 155 g (1 and 1/4 cups) spelt flour (or plain all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour)
• 100 g (3.5 oz) unsalted butter, melted
• grated zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange
• 1 tablespoon orange blossom water

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C (400 degrees F/Gas 6). Rub butter onto a tray of madeleine moulds. (I'm not a fan of flouring moulds...)

Whisk the eggs, agave (or sugar), and orange blossom water until the mixture is thick and pale and the whisk leaves a trail when lifted using an electrical mixer. Gently fold in the flour, the melted butter and grated lemon and orange zest.

Spoon the mixture into the moulds, leaving a little room for them to rise. Bake for 12 minutes (small madeleines will need 7 only), or until very lightly golden and springy to the touch. Remove from the tray and cool on a wire rack.

Notes:

This is a very simple recipe, but it requires a madeleine mould that you can find in most kitchen supply shops. If you use spelt flour, know that the madeleines will not rise as much. Also, since sugar adds volume to the batter, the use of agave will make the batter less voluminous.