We were recently in Luxembourg and in the capital of this small country in the middle of Europe, Luxembourg City (Luxembourgish: Stad Lëtzebuerg, French: Ville de Luxembourg), there is the “Boutique Léa Linster Delicatessen” of the great Luxembourgish chef (4 Rue de l’Eau, 1449 Ville-Haute Luxembourg). In this corner of the city, for example, you can catch glimpses like these:
They are famous for their madeleine, an extremely popular French pastry whose origins seem to be shrouded in legend. It probably dates back to the 18th century and the Lorraine region. Its characteristic shape is reminiscent of a Jacob’s scallop.
To prepare madeleine as they are known, you need an appropriate baking tin. As a rule, we do not describe recipes that require such special equipment, but we are making an exception here – because of the serious delicacy. The best molds are made of metal, but they are more expensive. Silicone molds, on the other hand, are cheaper. Moulds for the typical size make 12 madeleines, and our recipe is based on this.
One well-known recipe, for example, is that of the Roux family, who brought French cuisine to the UK. It uses whole eggs, lemon juice and zest and baking powder. Léa Linster is completely different. She only uses egg whites and none of the aforementioned other ingredients, partially replaces flour with finely grated almonds and turns butter into brown butter (beurre noisette).
If you read on, you will find surprisingly different recipes for these delicious pastries. However, we were so impressed by the madeleines in Luxembourg – even though we are not big fans of desserts – that we had to have a go at these little delicacies ourselves.
After some consideration of the topic, this is our recipe:
We decide to use whole egg. We use the almond flour, the idea is brilliant. The same goes for the brown butter. However, we add a little lemon zest (no juice) and a hint of tonka bean as aromatics. Tonka brings a flavour that is reminiscent of vanilla, but also has other facets. One taster, for example, was reminded of nutmeg and thought it was great.
You should make the brown butter first, as it needs to cool a little (until you no longer burn yourself on it, that’s enough). We have explained how to do this here.
We recommend using a kitchen machine for the dough. However, this recipe can also be made with a whisk and mixing bowl.
First, beat the eggs and powdered sugar until frothy. This takes about 2 minutes in the food processor (Kitchen Aid: speed 3).
Next, add flour and almond flour and mix in completely (level 2). This takes about 3 minutes.
A small amount of lemon zest (the yellow part of the peel of a hot-washed organic lemon) and some grated tonka beans are added to the dough. You need a very fine grater for this and even if we don’t advertise or receive anything for it – it has to be a Microplane at the moment. It is the best product (today).
Then continue to stir the batter or run the machine on a low setting while adding the brown butter in a thin trickle. Similar to making mayonnaise, you should proceed slowly.
This dough needs to rest. Half an hour is the absolute minimum if you are in a hurry. More time is better, we recommend 2 hours and the ideal time is to put the dough in the fridge the evening before and bake it the next day.
To do this, preheat the oven to 200 °C without fan. Spread a thin layer of butter on the baking tin, then pour the batter into the molds for the madeleines. It is more liquid than firm and should just about fill each shell shape (please pay attention to the size of the eggs, as indicated below).
The madeleines now need to bake for 9 minutes at medium height, and you should keep a very close eye on this. 7 minutes is never enough. From minute 8, they could start to brown on the edges. At 9 minutes, they certainly do. 10 is always too long, at least if your oven produces a reliable temperature. They should look as shown here when you take them out of the oven:
The madeleines are then turned out onto a wire rack to cool as quickly as possible. If you don’t have such a rack, use a cold baking tray, which dissipates heat quickly. The result is absolutely outrageously delicious. Incidentally, in our last recipe for classic ratatouille, we referred to the film of the same name and the famous scene in which Antone Ego is transported back to his childhood by eating the dish. This is known as the Madeleine effect, or the Proust effect, because of a famous passage from Marcel Proust’s novel “In Search of Lost Time”.
Enjoy.
And may the taste be with you.
Ingredients (for 12 madeleines):
2 eggs size M (approx. 100 g)
75 g icing sugar
75 g butter -> brown butter
25 g flour
25 g almond flour (finely grated almonds)
Zest of 1/8 – 1/6 lemon
Tonka bean, passed 10 times over the grater (alternative: 1 dash of rum)
