French Madeleines with Rhubarb & Ginger Curd (v)
I was first introduced to these delightful little sponge cakes on my first French exchange trip to the south of France. I remember the smell emanating from my host families’ kitchen, of freshly baked madeleines that appeared in my lunch box later that day. It was the best packed lunch I’d ever had, filled with home made French delights.
These little delicate cakes with their distinctive shell-like shape and infamous hump, crispy on the edge and fluffy soft buttery crumb on the inside, ensures that every bite is a memorable one. I adore these little cakes, that have become a part of French culture.
Adrien Henri, the Liverpool Poet wrote in one of his poems ‘and Marcel Proust in the Kardomah, eating Madeleine butties dipped in tea’ taking influence from the famous Marcel Proust quote that linked the sensory memory of the Madeleine, in his book A la Recherche Temps Perdu (‘In Search of Lost Time’), Proust remembered the distinct smell of the madeleine. It’s what I remember too. It’ll always be a ‘Madeleine de Proust’ moment for me. It never fails to have the same effect on me every time I bake them.
I hope you’ll give them a go. Of course you can use shop bought curd if you don’t fancy making your own or just make the plain Madeleine and add a drop of vanilla extract. You will however, need to buy a Madeleine tin. It’s a worthy investment as I guarantee once you’ve made these delightful morsels you’ll be making them many times.
Happy baking,
N x
Ingredients
Serves: 12 | Prep: 15m | Rest: 1hr | Bake: 12-15m
French Madeleines
100g plain flour, little extra for dusting tin
100g golden caster sugar
100g unsalted butter, melted and cooled, extra for greasing tin
1 flat level tsp baking powder
Zest of 1 lemon
2 large free range eggs
Icing sugar for dusting
Rhubarb & Ginger Curd
400g fresh rhubarb, washed and roughly chopped
1 ball crystallised ginger finely chopped, plus 1 tbsp ginger syrup
150g golden caster sugar
3 large free range eggs
175g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
4 tsp cornflour
1 capful of either rhubarb, ginger or grenadine syrup cordial (optional)
Method
The madeleine batter can be made 1-2 days in advance and left in the refrigerator. When you are ready to bake the madeleines, make sure your batter has chilled for at least an hour before use.
Melt a little butter and grease your Madeleine tray, dust over a bit of plain flour and pop the tray in the fridge.
Start by mixing the sugar and eggs with a hand whisk or in a blender, until it’s paler in colour a doubled in size. It should be light and airy.
Fold in the sieved flour, baking powder and salt. Add the lemon zest to the bowl and mix until combined.
Add a tablespoon of the mixed batter mixture to your cooled butter, mix to form a paste, then add the butter mixture back in to your bowl of batter and fold in gradually until it’s all combined.
Note, don’t over mix, just gently fold it in as to not knock out too much of the air.
Pop the batter into the refrigerator covered for an hour or two.
While the batter is chilling you can make the curd, if using.
Add the chopped rhubarb to a blender and blitz to a smooth consistency. Strain through a sieve extracting as much juice as you can.
Reserve a little of the juice and mix a tablespoon in with the cornflour to form a paste. Keep a little back to add at the end.
Pop the remaining rhubarb juice into a pan with the sugar, ginger pieces, syrup, cornflour paste and whisked eggs on a low heat. Let it warm through without bubbling too fiercely.
Add the butter pieces gradually until it’s melted into the curd and thickened. Don’t turn up the heat as the eggs will curdle. Stir continually with a spatula making sure the edges of the pan don’t catch.
Be patient, as this process should take you 20 minutes until you reach a smooth custard-like curd.
If you haven’t managed to get smooth curd, you can push through a sieve again to remove any curdled egg.
Add the reserved rhubarb juice and cordial syrup if using, leave to cool.
Once cooled pop into a sterilised lidded jar and refrigerate.
This will keep for a week in the fridge.
Preheat the oven to 200C Fan/Gas Mark 7.
Once the oven is ready, remove the cold Madeleine tray and batter from the fridge. Spoon a tablespoon of the batter into each Madeleine hole, there’s no need to spread it out, it’ll do that when it bakes.
Pop the filled tray into the hot oven and bake for 8-10 minutes until pale and golden in colour. You’ll see the little humps rising in their centres. This happens with the steam from the oven reacting with the chilled batter.
That’s why it’s a must to have cold batter and a cold tray.
Once cooked remove from the oven, tip out the madeleine onto a wire rack. Leave to cool.
If using the curd, pop the half the curd into a piping bag with a nozzle.
Take the cooled Madeleine and cut a little hole into the Madeleine’s hump and pipe some rhubarb curd into the centre of each Madeleine.
Dust with a light dusting of icing sugar.
Eat warm with a pot of tea. Dunk like Adrian Henri suggests, if you like!
Enjoy
N x
