These sweet little French sponge cakes make for the perfect accompaniment to your afternoon tea.
Madeleines are a traditional, small cake from northern France, recognisable for their shell shape. Typically a simple sponge flavoured with vanilla or almonds, these cakes can easily be adapted with other flavourings like citrus, chocolate or cinnamon.
This weekend I planned to re-shoot a recipe I created a few years back: matcha and white chocolate chip cookies. Instead I purchased my first madeleine mould tray and had a go at these little cakes and it only took me two goes to perfect the recipe!
These madeleines are soft and spongey, but slightly crispy around the edges. The slight bitterness of matcha mixed with the sweetness of white chocolate is a combination you have to try. Once an ingredient that was a bit difficult to come by, you can now buy it quite cheaply from any Asian grocer. For baking, I'd recommend using cheaper matcha powder; save the good stuff for your lattes.
A note before you start: set aside an afternoon to make these little cakes, they need a bit of chill time in the fridge before baking.
PrintMatcha Madeleines
Sweet little matcha-flavoured sponge cakes make for the perfect accompaniment to your afternoon tea
- Prep Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours 15 minutes
- Yield: 36 1x
- Category: Sweet
- Cuisine: Dessert
Ingredients
- 3 eggs, room temperature
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tbsp green tea matcha powder
- 125g butter, melted
- ¼ cup milk
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 200g white chocolate
- ½ cup roasted pistachios, crushed
Instructions
- In a stand mixer, whisk eggs, sugar and vanilla on a high speed until pale, soft and fluffy.
- In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and matcha. Add this to the eggs a third at a time while beating the egg mixture on a slow speed.
- Meanwhile, whisk together melted butter, milk and oil. Scoop out half a cup of the egg mixture and stir it into the butter, then pour all back in to the batter and fold through. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for two hours.
- Preheat oven to 160ºC. Prepare madeleine mould by spraying lightly with oil or butter and dusting with flour. Using a teaspoon, scoop batter into moulds until about three quarters full.
- Bake for 10 minutes before removing tray and tapping on a flat surface. Continue baking for a further five minutes until madeleines are slightly golden around the edges. Remove from moulds and place on a wire wrack to cool.
- Place white chocolate in a bowl and microwave for a minute and a half, stirring at each 30 second interval until chocolate is smooth and silky.
- Dip half of each cooled madeleine in chocolate and sprinkle with pistachios.
Looking for more afternoon tea ideas? Try my choc caramel oatmeal slice or roasted garlic hummus.
