how to make easy madeleines with lavender & lemon recipe

These easy madeleines with lavender and honey are a fuss-free recipe that makes perfect madeleines every time. You can switch up the flavour and make them lemon poppyseed if you prefer. This is the best French madeleine recipe I know

I’ve made madeleines a couple of times before and I know there is an art to making the perfect ones. I’ve read about batter needing to rest in the fridge overnight or as one of my fave food writers David Lebovitz does, he rests it twice for an hour each time.

This apparently ensures the perfect hump in the madeleine and I am keen to experiment further. In the meantime, I saw this recipe in the latest Donna Hay magazine (Sept /Oct issue) and it looked so straightforward I loved the dusting of lavender and lemon sugar.

The other little trick to making a good madeleine is melting the butter and adding honey, and her recipe includes both. On the matter of the hump, these looked pretty perfect and ‘humpy’ to me although I’m not an expert. I would say that using a nonstick madeleine pan would be easier and mine clung a little to the mould despite a fairly generous coating of cooking spray. I see David brushes his with melted butter which can only be better, so you decide what method you want to use.

I love madeleines because they are small and not overly sweet. I’m a big fan of cake – in my opinion, it should be its own food group, and a madeleine is the perfect little snack-sized cake.

This recipe was so easy to mix up and everything is made by hand. They bake for 10 minutes and the lavender lemon sugar doesn’t overpower and is deliciously fragrant. In fact, I thought it could be even more lemony and floral, so if you want a stronger flavour here, I would suggest adding another half a teaspoon of lavender and a dash more lemon zest.

The only change I made to the recipe was I used caster sugar instead of granulated sugar for the dusting. Caster is so much better for this because it’s finer and evenly coats the madeleines. I also reduced the quantity of sugar from the one cup they suggest to ¾ of a cup because there was so much left over.

In Donna Hay, they also suggest using your fingers to mix the sugar, lavender and lemon zest together, but I wanted to break the flowers down and really mix the ingredients, so used my small KitchenAid chopper which is perfect for this kind of job.

I loved that this quantity makes 24 madeleines and I have two 12-holed madeleine pans, so frankly serendipitous. Making more than that becomes a chore.

Recipe – makes 24

Prep Time:10

Cook Time:12

Ingredients

Madeleines:

1 cup 150g plain all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup 150g caster sugar
4 free-range eggs
160 gm butter melted
2 Tblsp honey
2 tsp vanilla extract

Lavender & lemon sugar:

¾ cup caster sugar about 180gms
2 tsp lavender
Finely grated rind of a small lemon – about 1 – 1 ½ tsp

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F and lightly grease 2 x 12-hole madeleine molds with cooking spray (spray the area in between the indentation in case the batter spills over the edges).
In a large bowl add the flour, baking powder, eggs, vanilla, honey, and melted butter, and using a whisk mix until you have a smooth batter.
Scoop out about a dessertspoonful per mold. You want to fill it so that it fills the area to level or just below the level.
Bake for 8 – 10 minutes until golden brown and firm to the touch.
While the madeleines are baking make the lavender & lemon sugar by mixing all the ingredients together and either rub between your fingers or pulse in a small food processor to break up the dried flower and allow the lemon zest to fully mix with the sugar.

Servings: 24

Author: Sam Linsell

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8 Comments

these sound delicious! I just need to buy the right moulds! Thanks for sharing.

Hi…just discovered your blog – lovely! I’ve already found about 10 recipes I want to make! With regard to your madeleines…please use butter to grease the madeleine pans, you’ll find they fall out much more easily and don’t leave a greasy film on the cakes. I’ve been baking over 50 years now, and madeleines was one of the first recipes my mum taught me (she was a professional baker). Always butter (unsalted, of course!). Room temperature or slightly warm, but not melted, and use a soft brush (not the silicone ones) to spread the butter into the grooves. Looking forward to making your recipes! Your photography just begs one to bake!