Zosia's Reviews
7 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 7Sort by: Title 
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We Love Madeleines
By Miss Madeleine, Antonis Achilleos
Chronicle Books - 2012
Basic Madeleines with Vanilla Bean : page 18
The perfect Madeleine……fantastic flavour and lovely texture.
This recipe calls for a low-gluten pastry flour that ensures a tender crumb, and requires refrigeration of the batter for as long as 24 hours….something to keep in mind when planning to make these. The cookies are baked at 2 temperatures, starting with 400F. The book provides a helpful description of what should be happening to the little cake during baking (the depression in the centre eventually forms the characteristic hump).
These were a huge hit and so easy to make!
useful (1)
Chocolate-Hazelnut Madeleines : page 28
These are fantastic little cakes with a delicate flavour to match their texture. Soft and tender when baked, they’re very fragile and must be handled with care especially while they’re still warm. I used ¼ tsp of hazelnut oil flavouring and milk instead of Frangelico liqueur which gave them a lovely perfume, and skipped the optional chocolate chips, and melted chocolate and chopped hazelnut garnish.
My yield was 36, not 24.
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Chocolate-Olive Oil Madeleines : page 27
These little cakes had a wonderful tender texture and though they didn’t taste of olive oil, they did have a distinctly different flavour.
The batter was an easy sponge cake batter that took just a few minutes to mix together but I found that the olive oil was quite difficult to incorporate into it. The recipes in this book have been contributed by different chefs/bakers/bloggers so the method varies from one recipe to another. This recipe does not call for a rest period for the batter so I baked the madeleines immediately; the cookies didn’t have the traditional hump on the top.
The directions called for greasing the pan with olive oil and then flouring it. Unfortunately, none of the cookies released on their own and had to be pried out. If ever a cookie cried out for a dusting of powdered sugar to pretty it up, this is the one! But the recipe called for a sprinkling of sea salt instead so that’s what I used. It did add an interesting dimension to the flavour of the cookie, pushing them even closer to the savoury side.
They were okay but not a recipe I’ll make again but it did teach me to stick to prepping the pan with melted butter/flour.
useful (1)
Maple Pecan Madeleines : page 48
Perfect little bites of sweet and nutty sponge cake. I included the optional maple extract for added maple oomph.
They baked up with a respectable hump after only a 1 hour rest period for the batter; the pecans gravitated to the bottom of the pan but the cake portion above was light and airy.
I thought I was finally getting the hang of portioning the batter but my yield was 28 (instead of 24) with the molds ¾ full.
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Matcha Madeleines : page 95
Loved the subtle green tea and lemon flavour of these little sponge cakes.
Unfortunately, the texture was a little rubbery. I’ll try cake flour the next time.
For a yield of 24, only half-fill the molds.
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Pumpkin Spice Madeleines : page 53
Nicely spiced sponge cakes with just a hint of orange.
This recipe relies on the beaten eggs for leavening so I took special care when adding the other ingredients so the mixture wouldn’t deflate. The texture was still a little dense in the end but the madeleines stayed moist for longer than most.
My yield was 32, not 24.
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Smoked Paprika and Fontina Madeleines : page 82
These airy little sponge cakes pack a huge smokey, cheese-y flavour punch!
The method follows that of a typical sponge cake batter but with no sugar and all of that cheese I did have concerns about the finished texture. The concerns were groundless because these were moist with a delicate crumb. At 32 little cakes, my yield was higher than the recipe indicated.
I served them warm with this soup.
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