Making Madeleines

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 12-20 minutes

Madeleine Recipe For Four Molds

Sugar – 1.333 cup
Orange extract - 2tsp
Eggs - 6

Melted Butter - 2.5 sticks

Flour - 2 cups

Preheat oven to 400F

Throw the sugar, orange extract, and eggs into a bowl and beat them. A Kitchenaid or other stand mixer with a whisk or beater attachment is a 1:72 scale version of god when it comes to this recipe. With the beating started, melt the butter, probably in the microwave.

By the time the butter is melted, the egg mix should look like this:


And the butter should look like this:


Chunks in the butter are okay, but they shouldn’t be too big. In this case, another ten seconds in the microwave should fix it.

Pour the butter slowly into the eggs and sugar, whisking the whole time. Once the butter is mixed, slowly add the flour. If you’re whisking by hand, this is where your daily weight training happens. With the flour all added in, the batter should look creamy, with little peaks. Kind of like this:


Now you get your Madeleine molds out. No molds? No problem. Pretty much any mold will work, including muffin (or mini muffin) pans. If you want the actual seashell molds, you can find them online or at cooking stores fairly easily. Nonstick is nice, but not necessary, because you’re going to butter the shit out of the pan before dumping the batter in.

As for the seashell shape, I have no idea. Maybe they were originally baked in seashells? Honestly, to me, the strakes on the bottom of the finished Madeleine look like the bottom of a jetski. Seriously, go find a picture. It’s eerily close.

Speaking of butter, you should now melt a little more into a small bowl. Grab a pastry or basting brush, and slather the butter into each of the molds, making sure to get some up and over the edge of each indentation. You don’t need to be careful, especially since rushing the job and laying it on thick works best. In the photo, the molds to the left are buttered, and the ones on the right are dry. Get them all!


Scoop some of the batter into the molds. It expands, so anywhere from half to two-thirds full is plenty. Yeah, like this:


They go into the oven for anywhere from 12-20 minutes, depending on the usual variables of size and pan material and actual oven temperature, so keep an eye on them. They should look like this when they come out.


Tip them out onto cooling rack and you’re done!


In case you didn’t catch the recipe, these are basically carbs and butter fat, so they’re properly appalling to the dieting types. They’re French, too, so remember to drink plenty of wine to stave off heart disease. I obviously eat these things whenever I can get my hands on them, and I’ve had no heart attacks so far. But I think that if my arteries ever unionize I might be in trouble.