ALLCAPS COOKBOOK PRESENTS: Meyer Lemon Maple Brown Butter Madeleines (Patreon)

Meyer Lemon Maple Brown Butter Madeleines

What can I say, the baby loves madeleines. We kept him mostly off the sugar sauce until he turned one, and now we’ve been introducing some low-key baked goods, and madeleines vanish into him instantaeously. It’s possible he just teleports them from the kitchen into his pack and play, I can’t be sure. So I decided, rather than keep buying them at $3 a pop, that I’d make some at home. 

I ALREADY HAD THE PAN BECAUSE I AM A FANCY BITCH WHO LIKES FRENCH THINGS.

So yeah the thing is you need a pan? I guess maybe you could make these in a mini cupcake pan or something but the seashell shape is sort of what makes a madeleine a madeleine and not, I don’t know, a marianne, so yes you need a pan that is good for only one thing. It costs about $10. If you feel about madeleines the way I and my tiny teleporter do, it’s worth it. If not, well, life is full of variety and opportunity.

I have always wondered how other kinds of small cakes would come out in a madeleine pan. I suppose you could try anything really. I may have to experiment OH NOZ. Or even a savory madeleine. Or little seashell-shaped cornbreads. 

But this one is pretty traditional, with a couple of tweaks to the flavor profile. BABIES ARE SUCH BASIC BITCHES. WAA WAA I DON’T LIKE CAYENNE PEPPER IN THINGS BECAUSE MY TONGUE IS TINY AND HELPLESS. 

He will, however, accept lemon in almost anything, so we let him stay. 

LET’S GET IT FRANCOIS IN HERE.

Ingredients

1 stick of butter + 2 tbsp for the pan and brushing on

2 large eggs

1/2 cup sugar

Zest of one entire Meyer lemon, one and a half if you’re feeling extra citrus

1.5 teaspoon maple syrup (highly recommend Maine maple syrup, which is not like other girls maple syrups, and has a darker, almost coffee-like flavor to it)

The guts of one long whole vanilla bean 

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

Tons of recipes call for confectioner’s sugar to be sifted over the top when these are done, but I DISAGREE, I think it makes it too sweet and drowns out the vanilla and lemon. GO NAKED, MADDY.

HOW DO

Okay…these are kind of a pain in the ass. French baking, what can you say? Worth it though! This made 18 cookies for me, but it’ll go a little either way depending on how much batter you use in each shell.

Melt the butter in a large pan until just turned brown. Not dark brown, but like…parchmenty brown. Tan. Set aside to cool in a medium bowl.

Get out the stand mixer unless you hate yourself. Throw in the eggs and the sugar and beat on high speed for 8 goddamn minutes I’m not even joking. Then beat in the lemon zest, maple syrup, vanilla bean guts, until combined.

Take the bowl off the mixer and do the rest of this by hand. 

GET READY FOR SOME SENSUAL SHIT RIGHT HERE THIS IS A TOP NOTCH FEELING.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into a small bowl. Gently fold into the egg mixture 1/4 of the bowl at a time, and very carefully, as this is silky and delicate AS FUCK and is going to come together like golden velvet it’s such a beautiful texture I am telling you what. Again, gently, stir batter 1/4 cup at a time into the brown butter. It will look yucky at first and then get all creamy and shiny and sleek. 

Cover batter and chill for at least 30 but no longer than 60 minutes.

NOW GET OUT THAT DUMBASS SINGLE USE PAN.

Melt the remaining 2 tsp of butter in the microwave. DO NOT BROWN with the rest. It will burn the edges of the cookies in the oven. Using a pastry brush, coat the inside of each shell in the pan generously with butter. This won’t use it all, so hold onto the dregs.

Spoon one tablespoon of batter into each shell. Not a heaping one, just a tablespoon. Refrigerate the rest of the batter for the second batch since no matter what cookbooks assume, ain’t nobody got two madeleine pans.

Bake at 350 for 11-13 minutes or until the tops spring back when you touch them. And I mean JUST that long, overbake these and they get dry very fast.

Remove from oven and brush the last of the butter over the tops as they cool. Once cool, you can put on confectioner’s sugar if you feel you must. That is between you and your god. 

Now hide these and dole them out to the people you live with one at a time by request only or you’ll wake up in the morning and they will have all teleported into SOMEONE’S belly.