Growing in France, madeleines pastries are naturally part of my life. At my grand-parents’ houses, on both sides of the family, I would always look for this metallic box always filled with them. On my dad’s side, my grand-mother was the baker, while on my mom’s side, that was my grand-father! They both baked amazing madeleines, the only difference was that my grand-father would make sure to use all of the batter with no chance for me to lick the bowl !!!
This is the type of boxes I would look for, always filled with good treats! When speaking about child memories with my friends, it seems it was quite usual to find these boxes in most French family’s kitchen !
So, when I started to bake as a kid, I got the recipes from both grand-parents and I discovered they were almost the same! Super easy to make and impossible to resist. So here is my grand-father’s one:
Ingredients
3 eggs
150 g – 2/3 cup butter
180 g – 1 1/2 cups flour
5 g – ½ tsp baking powder
150 g – 2/3 cup sugar
1 pinch of salt
Process
Beat the eggs and sugar vigorously in a mixing bowl. Sift the flour and the baking powder on top and mix. Add the butter almost melted and the salt, mix until homogenous.
Place the batter in the fridge for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 390 °F. Fill each mold up until 3/4 of it. Place in the oven for 15 minutes.
Et voilà!!! Bon Appetit!!!
A few tips
My grand-mother told me the importance of leaving the batter in the fridge for at least 1 hour so that when you place the madeleine pan in the preheated hoven, the temperature difference creates the very characteristic hump of the madeleine.
I use less sugar than in the recipe. For some reason I always have to reduce the quantity of sugar from my grand-parents’ recipes.
Finally, the recipe says 20-25 minutes, but with 15 I find them spongier.
Madeleines are perfect to eat anytime. It can be for breakfast, with coffee or tea. Every excuse is good to get one!
If you love madeleines and if you find this recipe perfect for your taste, I can make a ceramic bowl with the recipe on it so that you can bake them as often as you wish without the need to look for the recipe on internet or in a book. And if you happen to know someone crazy for madeleines, this could be a nice gift idea!
