Small shell-shaped butter cakes with crisp golden edges, a soft crumb and a proud bump on top. The bump comes from a cold, rested batter and a hot oven, and Canadian cake and pastry flour keeps the crumb light.
In France, madeleines are in every supermarket, sold in big bags for very little, so most people buy them rather than bake them. Here they cost a lot more, so I bake a big batch instead. The batter keeps a day in the fridge and the madeleines freeze well, so one afternoon of baking covers a lot of goûters. The flour is the one swap that matters: Canadian all-purpose is stronger than French flour, and cake and pastry flour brings back the soft crumb.
Madeleines are small shell-shaped butter cakes from Lorraine, with a crisp golden edge on the ridged side and a rounded bump on the other. In France they're the classic goûter, the after-school snack. Fresh from the oven, still warm, they're a different thing.
Finding a metal madeleine pan
Most Canadian supermarkets don't carry madeleine pans, so it's the one thing to buy ahead. Get a metal 12-shell pan: metal heats fast enough for golden edges and a bump, while silicone bakes them pale and flat. Non-stick metal is fine.
Linen Chest, a Quebec chain that also ships across Canada from its website, sells two 12-shell metal pans: Anna Olson Kitchen and La Pâtisserie. The La Pâtisserie shells run a little small.
What flattens the bump
Two things flatten the bump: filling the shells to the brim, so the batter spreads before it rises, and batter left on the counter between trays.
Making it in Canada
The French ingredient, and what to buy for it in Canada.
Farine T45→Cake and pastry flour
T45 is the finest, whitest French flour (the number is its mineral content, not its strength), and the pastry kind is low in protein. Canadian all-purpose is about 13% protein, which makes madeleines chewy and bready; cake and pastry flour is softer and gives a tender crumb. No cake flour? Use 90 g all-purpose plus 10 g cornstarch.
🛒 Robin Hood Best for Cake & Pastry Flour, 2.5 kg, at Walmart.
Good to know: A lot of Canadian honey is sold creamed: white and spreadable. It works here too; whisk the eggs a little longer so it dissolves completely.
Ready to cook?
Madeleines
Small shell-shaped butter cakes with crisp golden edges, a soft crumb and a proud bump on top. The bump comes from a cold, rested batter and a hot oven, and Canadian cake and pastry flour keeps the crumb light.
Prep time
15 min
Cook time
25 min
Resting time
1 hr
Total time
1 hr 40 min
Servings
8
Chill the batter at least 1 hour, and up to 24 hours.
Ingredients
Original recipe: 8 servings.
Instructions
Whisk the eggs. Whisk the eggs, sugar, honey and salt for 2–3 minutes, until pale and slightly thickened. Stir in the lemon zest.
Add the flour. Sift the flour and baking powder over the eggs and fold in gently with a spatula until just combined.
Add the butter. Pour in the cooled melted butter and fold until the batter is smooth and glossy.
Chill. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour, and up to 24 hours. The cold batter is what makes the bump.
Prepare the pan. Brush the madeleine pan with soft butter, dust with flour and tap out the excess. Put the pan in the fridge while the oven heats to 220°C (425°F).
Fill. Spoon or pipe the cold batter into the moulds, about three-quarters full. Don't spread it: it levels in the oven. Put the rest of the batter straight back in the fridge.
Bake hot, then lower. Bake 4 minutes at 220°C (425°F), then turn the oven down to 190°C (375°F) and bake 4–5 minutes more, until the edges are golden, the bumps have risen and the tops spring back when touched.
Unmould. Tap the pan on the counter straight away to release the madeleines and cool them on a rack, bump side up.
Bake the second batch. Let the pan cool, then re-butter and flour it and put it back in the fridge for 10 minutes. Turn the oven back up to 220°C (425°F) meanwhile, then fill with the cold batter and bake as before.
Etekcity digital kitchen scale: Madeleines work by weight, about 100 g each of eggs, sugar, flour and butter, so a scale is quicker and more accurate than cups.
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Notes
Makes about 20 madeleines in a standard 12-shell pan, in two batches: enough for 8 people at goûter.
For a big batch, double everything and bake one tray at a time; the batter keeps up to 24 hours in the fridge. Freeze cooled madeleines in a freezer bag for up to 1 month and warm them 3–4 minutes at 160°C (325°F).
Best within a few hours. Keep leftovers in an airtight tin for a day, or freeze them the day they're baked.
French butter is at least 82% fat and Canadian butter 80%. In madeleines the difference hardly shows; the honey keeps them moist.
Course: Baking · Cuisine: French · Adapted for Canadian kitchens
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