A traditional French mini shell shaped sponge cakes are wonderful served with teas or coffees. Easy recipe using basic pantry ingredients makes this tender cake fun to make. You will need a madeleine pan and an orange but other than that you’ve got this recipe. Madeleines are buttery tender and semi sweet small sponge cakes that I dipped in melted dark chocolate. Chocolate and orange flavors are made in heaven, they are delicious! You can also add lemon zest or really great vanilla extract.
Impress your friends with this recipe for a Mother’s Day luncheon or afternoon tea. Other tea treats that will impress are Mini Raspberry Tarts, Lemon Cooler Sandwich Cookies, French Macrons, and Orange Current Scones.
What is a Madeleine? A Cookie or a Cake?
There is no set rule, however, this recipe they are more like mini cakes. My madeleine pan is not a traditional shaped pan that you normally see as a madeleine but I loved this pan so that is what I went with. Also, a madeleine usually has a traditional hump on the back side of the small cake. my recipe baked in this pan did not have a large “hump” but If I had baked this recipe in a traditional baking pan I would have had a lovely “hump”.
How to Make Madeleines?
Start with room temperature eggs and beat with sugar until very pale in color. Add orange zest and beat to blend. You don’t have to use a stand mixer you can use a hand held with beater attachments for whipping the eggs and sugar mixture.
In a separate mixing bowl add flour, baking powder and salt, whisk to blend. Add these ingredients in to the egg mixture just until combined but do not over beat. Then add the melted butter. It will look soupy but gently continue mixing on low speed or with a wooden spoon until butter is well blended.
Cover this batter for one hour or overnight. Overnight is best for the traditional hump look and is necessary for madeleines before baking.
Lightly coat a non stick madeleine pan with baking spray making sure you lightly grease each baking well. I used a pastry brush to brush the spray into each crevice of the wells. Lightly flour pan if not using a baking spray. Tip: using a non stick pan is recommended and you still should grease and brush with pastry brush.
Preheat oven to 350 ° F. Spoon 1 tablespoon of batter into the center of each well for the low traditional baking pan. For the large deep shell cavity that I used fill the batter 3/4 full into each well. No need to spread the batter within the pan, the batter will spread during baking.
Bake deep well madeleines for 20-22 minutes. For the shallow baking wells bake 7-8 minutes. After baking cool madeleines for 5 minutes before removing from pan. Remove to cooling rack and make chocolate glaze for dipping.
Making the Dark Chocolate Madeleine Glaze
In a small mixing bowl add dark chocolate chips, and 1 teaspoon butter. Melt in microwave at 30 second intervals until chips melt and mixture is very smooth. Add orange extract and stir to blend. Holding the madeleine by the hump of back side, dip shell imprinted side in the melted chocolate. Allow excess to drain off then place back on cooling rack to set. Serve these little cakes at room temperature. Store in refrigerator.
Madeleines are best served and eaten the day you make them. But they can be made ahead and frozen, just don’t dip in chocolate before freezing. Thaw to room temperature then dip in chocolate.
Typical madeleines are dusted with sifted confectioner’s sugar. That’s pretty much it. It’s a simple recipe and very good. This recipe makes 12-15 mini cakes. If you want to use a chocolate bar flavored with orange that would be great too.
Dark Chocolate Orange Madeleines
Tender buttery orange flavored sponge madeleine cakes baked in a deep well shell madeleine pan, dipped in dark orange chocolate.
- Prep Time: 1 hour + 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes deep well pan
- Total Time: 2 hours
- Yield: 12–15 cakes 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: French
Ingredients
3 eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons grated orange zest
1 teaspoon orange extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons melted butter
Dark Chocolate Orange Glaze
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1 teaspoon melted butter
1/2 teaspoon orange extract
Instructions
- In medium mixing bowl, beat eggs with sugar until very pale yellow. Add grated orange jest and extract.
- In small mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to egg sugar mixture. just until combined. Do not over mix.
- Add melted butter, stir with wooden spoon or low speed with beaters until butter is well blended.
- Cover batter with plastic wrap and chill at least one hour or up to 10-12 hours. Well chilled batter will make the “hump” and is an very important step to making madeleines.
- Preheat oven to 350 °F. Lightly coat non stick madeleine baking pan with baking spray. Lightly brush sprayed wells with a pastry brush to get in all the crevices of the well. Lightly flour pan if not using baking spray.
- Bake deep well madeleines for 20-22 minutes, bake traditional baking pan madeleines for 7-8 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes before removing from baking pan. Place cooled cakes on cooling rack. At this point you can wrap and freeze if you are making these ahead.
Making chocolate glaze and dipping madeleines: In small microwave safe bowl, melt dark chocolate chips and butter. Microwave at 30 second intervals until melted, stir in orange extract, then stir to blend.
Holding madeleines by the hump of the smooth side, dip chocolate in bowl covering the ribbed shell side. Allow excess chocolate to drain off then place on cooling rack to set. At this point you can place in refrigerator to help set the chocolate. Store in covered container.
Traditional madeleines are dusted with confectioner’s sugar.
Notes
Madeleines best eaten day you make them. They can be flavored with lemon zest for a great madeleine. I used a deep well shell shaped madeleine baking pan and the hump was not significant.
If you use a traditional madeleine pan, fill pan with 1 tablespoon batter, bake 350 ° F for 7-8 minutes. After baking and cooling ,dust with confectioner’s sugar.
Other Ideas You Might Like to Try:
French Macrons- Cookie Candy Board
