Madeleines

5 from 1 vote

Dessert

Traditionally served at coffee or teatime (or whenever you need a hug in cake form), madeleines represent everything the French do best: elegance, simplicity, and just a little bit of buttery heaven.

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Prep Time 2 hours hrs 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 2 hours hrs 25 minutes mins

Servings 12 madeleines

Ingredients 

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• 2 egg
• 100 gr sugar
• 20 gr honey
• 100 gr unsalted butter
• 100 gr plain flour
• 3 gr baking powder
• 1 squeeze lemon juice
• 1 pinch salt

Equipment

• 1 madeleine tray
• 1 mixing bowl (one for wet, one for dry)
• 1 sieve
• 1 spatula
• 1 pastry brush
• 1 electric mixer

Instructions

1. 1. Prepare the egg mixture

   Crack the eggs into a bowl and add the sugar. Whisk until pale, thick, and a bit frothy, this gets those lovely air bubbles going.
2. 2. Incorporate honey

   Add the honey to your egg and sugar mixture and mix it in well. You want the sweetness smooth and evenly distributed.
3. 3. Melt and flavour the butter

   In a separate bowl, melt the butter. Mix in a squeeze of lemon juice and a pinch of salt, think of this as setting the stage for all that almondy, buttery aroma later.
4. 4. Combine dry ingredients

   Sift the flour and baking powder together and add to the egg, sugar, and honey mixture. Stir gently until just incorporated.
5. 5. Add the butter

   Pour your melted, lemony butter into the batter and fold through with care. Don’t overwork it, gentle hands make fluffy cakes.
6. 6. Rest the batter

   Cover the bowl and let the batter rest in the fridge for at least 2 hours. This helps make that classic “hump”, the sign of a good madeleine!
7. 7. Preheat and prepare your tray

   When you’re ready to bake, grease your madeleine tray with a bit of melted butter. Preheat the oven to 220°C.
8. 8. Fill and bake

   Spoon the batter into your tray, filling each shell about three-quarters full (the mixture will rise). Bake for 3 minutes at 220°C, then reduce the oven to 200°C and bake for another 7 minutes until golden and slightly domed in the middle.
9. 8. Cool and enjoy

   Pop them out of the Madeleines tray and, if you can resist, let them cool on a rack. The aroma alone makes it tough to wait, but the flavours come out better if you have some patience.

Notes

You can make a million different versions of madeleines and never be bored. While the classic recipe is charmingly plain, just buttery, light, and elegant, don’t let that stop you from experimenting.

Matcha: Fancy something a bit green and mysterious? Add a teaspoon of matcha powder for a gentle earthy twist and a colour that stops people in their tracks.

Chocolate: Feeling whimsical? Dip half the shell in melted chocolate and let it set for that café-pâtisserie vibe.

Lavender: For the flower-lovers, a hint of dried lavender in the batter brings a subtle Provençal aroma that transports you straight to sleepy village afternoons.

Poppy seeds: Tiny poppy seeds add a gentle crunch that pairs beautifully with citrus zest.

And experiment with decorations! Edible flowers, sprinkles, a quick drizzle of citrus glaze, go wild. The shell shape means every version looks stunning, and frankly, you’re only limited by your imagination (and whatever you find at the back of the cupboard).

About this recipe

Traditionally served at coffee or teatime (or whenever you need a hug in cake form), madeleines represent everything the French do best: elegance, simplicity, and just a little bit of buttery heaven. They are as French as the baguette! Born in the 18th century in the town of Commercy, Lorraine, legend has it a resourceful servant named Madeleine Paulmier first baked them for the exiled King Stanisław of Poland, who, perfectly on brand, demanded something completely new for his guests. The cakes shot to stardom when Louis XV’s wife, Maria Leszczyńska, took the recipe to Versailles, and soon every Parisian salon was serving little shell-shaped bites of joy.

Marcel Proust and the madeleine moment

No pastry has ever triggered more daydreaming in French literature than the humble madeleine, thanks to Marcel Proust. In his monumental novel In Search of Lost Time (À la recherche du temps perdu), Proust transforms the act of tasting a madeleine, soaked in tea, into one of the most famous passages in world literature.

The original scene
At the start of the first volume, “Swann’s Way,” the narrator, feeling a tad low on a winter afternoon, accepts a cup of tea and a petite madeleine from his mother. As he takes a spoonful, he is suddenly swept away by an overwhelming sensation:

“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 […] And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray […] 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.”

This moment explodes into a cascade of childhood memories: his aunt Léonie’s bedroom, the Combray garden, his first feelings of joy and belonging. For Proust, the power of sensory experience, smell, taste, unlocks hidden memories we didn’t even know were buried.

Cultural impact: the “madeleine de Proust”
So strong was Proust’s description that madeleine de Proust has entered French as a stock expression, meaning any small thing (taste, smell, sound) that brings on a wave of nostalgia or involuntary memory. It’s the French equivalent of the scent of cut grass making you think of childhood summers, or the sound of a train whisking you back to holidays by the sea.