MADELINES

Ingredients
1 1/3 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup white sugar
zest of 1 large lemon
4 large eggs (room temperature)
4 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup butter, melted and cooled (1 1/2 sticks, 12 tbsp)
icing sugar for dusting


Instructions

Whisk together your flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Put the sugar and lemon zest in a large bowl (or the bowl of your stand mixer) and use your fingers to rub it together (this gets all that lemon flavour in the the sugar and helps incorporate it throughout the cookies evenly). Add the eggs and whip using the whisk attachment on medium-high until thick and pale yellow (3-5 minutes). Beat in the vanilla.

Take the bowl off your mixer and use a spatula to gently fold in the flour mixture. Go slow to keep your Madeleines light and airy, making sure no dry streaks of flour remain. Now gently fold in the melted butter.

Place a piece of plastic wrap right against the batter, to keep it from forming a film on top. Cover the top of the bowl with another piece of plastic wrap, then place the batter in the fridge for at least 3 hours, but up to 2 days. You can transfer the batter to another dish before covering with wrap to save space in the fridge.

When you're ready to start baking, preheat your oven to 400ºF with a rack in the middle position. Grease your Madeleine pans, then add roughly 1 tbsp of batter to each shell (fill 3/4 of the way up). Smooth the tops as best you can.

Bake for roughly 12 minutes, until the edges are golden and the tops spring back.

Flip out onto cooling racks until just warm, then dust with icing sugar.

Notes




These are best eaten the same day they are made.