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Sunday, July 28, 2013

Honey Madeleines with Chocolate Coating


Those who started worrying that I would keep walking the savoury road for too long, here you go with a new lovely sweet recipe. This time, changing the usual vanilla madeleine into a honey madeleine with chocolate coating. The idea came yesterday night when I was walking in town and came across the tiny little madeleine shop of Lea Linster. Some of my compatriots  might be shocked hearing that I never ever tried the original Lea Linster Madeleine. They're said the best in the country. I should go and find out. My friend Anne, who also prepared the Homemade Eclairs with me once succeeded in preparing them, and they were delicious.


My personal madeleine-baking experience is already much fun. When the little madeleines were in the oven I didn't stop looking at them and when the little top started crackling a bit, just like the originals, I felt an enormous success. You see, I don't need much to be happy. The reason I was so impressed is because madeleines are always said to be difficult to bake. Not in terms of preparation and not in terms of complicated dough, but more in terms of taste. That you have the right vanilla note, a nice texture etc...


I have some memories of grand-dad making madeleines but unfortunately I don't remember the taste anymore. Proust would be disappointed! I don't know how much you like literature, and most of you are more here for the recipe than for the story, but I still want to place the extract of the book :

"No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory – this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me it was me. ... Whence did it come? What did it mean? How could I seize and apprehend it? ... And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray (because on those mornings I did not go out before mass), when I went to say good morning to her in her bedroom, my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane. The sight of the little madeleine had recalled nothing to my mind before I tasted it. And all from my cup of tea."


For 20 Madeleines you need:

90g butter
2 large eggs
125g honey
170g flour
4cl milk
1tsp baking powder
200 dark chocolate




Melt the butter in a saucepan in order to get a more intense flavor.

In a large bowl whisk together the honey and the eggs, then add the milk. In a much smaller bowl mix the flour and the baking powder then add the dry mix to the liquid one. Now add stepwise the liquid butter until you get a foamy mixture.

Preparing your madeleines you have two choices. Either you keep the batter one night in the fridge, or if you're impatient like me, immediately pour the dough into the little madeleines' molds. I tried the two versions and I must admit that I don't really taste the difference. Maybe the latter version is a little less compact.


In any case preheat the oven to 200°. Bake the madeleines for 5 minutes than switch the oven to 180° and bake for another 5-7 minutes. Get the madeleines out of the oven and place them on a cooling tray.

While the madeleines are cooling down, prepare the chocolate coating. Melt the chocolate bain-marie style and coat the little madeleines afterwards. This is a much trickier duty. Be careful that your madeleines don't fall into your bowl full of melted chocolate.  Quickly dip the madeleine into the chocolate. Then with a knife spread the chocolate regularly over the bottom.

Let the chocolate coat dry for one or two hours in a cold room before serving.

Enjoy!!!











4 comments:

  1. Yummy! They are in the oven right now! I used maple syrup instead of honey. Exciting! :-)
    Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for you message!! Wow let me know how they were. I don't use maple syrio that often, but it's definitely worth a try!

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