Maple Chai Madeleines
These Maple Chai Madeleines are the perfect little cakey cookies for the fall season! These madeleines are soft and delicate in texture. These particular madeleines are flavoured with maple extract and bloomed chai spices for an even bigger flavour punch! They are dipped in a sweet maple glaze for some extra maple flavour boost!
WHAT ARE MADELEINES?
Madeleines are buttery sponge-cakes from French origin. They are baked in a special pan, called – you guessed it, a madeleine pan. The pan has depressions in the shape of shells, giving the cakes a sea-shell like appearance!
Like most French desserts, madeleines can be a little finicky and need to have certain characteristics present to be considered proper. For one, a proper madeleine needs to have distinctive grooves which is gets from the shape of the pan. Secondly, madeleines need to have a little camel-like hump on their back side. To perfectionists and French bakers, this hump basically makes or breaks a madeleine! That being said, they’re delicious with or without said hump.
TIPS FOR MAKING PERFECT MAPLE CHAI MADELEINES
TIP 1) DON’T OVER MIX
When adding the dry ingredients, only mix them in until they are just combined. When working with a batter that is so light and airy, over mixing the dry ingredients will deflate the batter and lead to dense madeleines!
TIP 2) USE A GOOD QUALITY PAN
The best insurance for making sure the madeleines come out cleanly with nicely defined ridges is by using a high quality pan! My favorite pan is this one from USA Pan (affiliate link)
TIP 3) USE BAKING SPRAY INSTEAD OF BUTTER
When greasing the madeleine pans, I found I got a better result from baking spray than I did with butter. When I used butter, the browning on the baked macarons was uneven and patchy.
TIP 4) USE A COOKIE SCOOP
When it’s time to add the batter into the pans, it is best to use a 3/4 oz sized cookie scoop. Scoop the batter, filling the cookie scoop to the top, then place into each indentation of the pan. This method just ensures that every madeleine is consistent in size.
TIP 5) SPREAD THE BATTER
When you’re portioning the batter into each indentation, use the cookie scoop to lightly spread the batter into the shape of the pan. I have found this produces the most uniform and well-shaped madeleines.
TIP 6) FREEZE THEM
After you’re done scooping the maple chai madeleines into the pans, place them into the freezer for 15 minutes exactly. Now, I’m not entirely sure why, but no-freezing led to no hump, while the quick-freeze produced the hump.
MAKING THE MAPLE CHAI MADELEINES
1. Bloom spices in butter: Add butter to a small saucepan over medium heat. Melt, then bring to a bubble, and then add in all the spices. Cook for about 30 seconds, then remove from heat and allow the butter to cool to just barely warm.
2. Mix dry ingredients: Add flour, salt and baking powder to a mixing bowl, then whisk well to combine it.
3. Whip sugar and eggs: Add sugar, eggs and maple extract to your stand mixer fitted with the whip attachment. Whip them until the batter is thick looking, tripled in volume, and ribbons off the whip attachment. This should take about 8 minutes on full-speed.
4. Add dry to wet: Remove the stand mixer bowl from the machine, then add the dry ingredients to the stand mixer bowl. Using a spatula, fold the dry ingredients into the wet batter until everything is incorporated and smooth. Don’t be too aggressive, as you don’t want to deflate the batter.
5. Fold in butter: Delicately fold the melted spiced butter into the batter. I find it is best to do this as a 2-step process – scoop some batter into the melted butter and fold it in until well combined, then pour that into the rest of the batter, and fold again until combined.
6. Scoop into pans, freeze, then bake: Scoop the batter into greased pans using a cookie scoop, then place into the freezer for 15 minutes. After, bake in the oven until bouncy and cooked through.
6. Dip in glaze: Finally, dip the cooled maple chai madeleines into the maple glaze and sprinkle with crushed pecans!
Get the Recipe: Maple Chai Madeleines
Ingredients
Maple Chai Madeleines
- 1/2 cup (114g) Unsalted Butter
- 3/4 tsp Cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp Cardamom
- 1/4 tsp Ground Ginger
- 1/8 tsp Nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp Cloves
- 1/8 tsp Allspice
- 1 scant cup (115g) All Purpose Flour,, measuring the flour properly is essential for this recipe (see note below)
- 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/8 tsp Salt
- 2 Large Eggs
- 1/2 cup (100g) White Sugar
- 1 ½ tsp Maple Extract
Maple Glaze
- 2 cups (240g) Confectioners Sugar
- 1 ½ tbsp Hot Water
- 1 ½ tbsp Maple Syrup
- 1 tsp Maple Extract
- Crushed Pecans, for garnish
Equipment
- Madeleine Pans
Instructions
Maple Chai Madeleines
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare 2 madeleine pans (18 cookies total) by spraying well with baking spray.
- Add the butter to a small saucepan over medium heat. Melt, then bring to a bubble, and then add in the cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice. Cook for about 30 seconds, then remove from heat and allow the butter to cool to just barely warm.
- Add the flour, baking powder and salt to a mixing bowl, then whisk to combine. Set aside.
- Add eggs, sugar, and maple extract to a stand mixer fitted with the whip attachment. Turn the stand mixer on high and whip the mixture for about 8 minutes. When done, the batter should look thick, tripled in volume, and it should ribbon off the attachment.
- Remove the bowl from the stand mixer, then add the dry ingredients to the bowl. Fold the dry ingredients into the batter until combined.
- Delicately fold the melted butter into the batter until it is well combined, but the batter isn’t deflated. It may be easiest to do this in 2 steps: scoop some batter into the melted butter and fold together, then pour that into the rest of the batter, and fold until combined again.
- Using a 3/4 oz cookie scoop, scoop the batter into the prepare madeleine pans, using the cookie scoop to lightly spread the batter into the pan. Place into the freezer for 15 minutes.
- Remove the pans from the freezer and place into the oven to bake for 11-12 minutes. Remove from oven, allow the madeleines to cool in the pan for 30 minutes, then carefully pop each madeleine out and place onto a wire rack to cool fully.
Maple Glaze
- Add the confectioners sugar, water, maple syrup and maple extract to a bowl, then whisk until smooth.
- Dip each cooled madeleine into the glaze and decorate with crushed pecans.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction
