Pistachio Rosewater Madeleines
These adorable petite Pistachio Rosewater Madeleines are buttery, fluffy, and soft! These French-origin cakes are made with ground pistachios, pistachio extract, and rosewater, giving them a nice Middle Eastern flavor vibe! The perfectly baked Pistachio Madeleines are finished with a white chocolate dip and crushed pistachios.
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 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 cooking spray instead of butter: When greasing the madeleine pans, I found I got a better result from cooking spray than I did with butter. When I used butter, the browning on the baked macarons was uneven and patchy.
Tip 3) Brush pans with cooking spray: Brushing the pans with cooking spray, rather than simply spraying them, ensures that every inch of surface on the pan has been properly coated with the cooking spray. This is essential to ensuring the pistachio madeleines come out cleanly from the pans
Tip 4) Use a cookie scoop: When it’s time to add the batter into the pans, it is best to use a 1.5” 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) Lightly deflate the batter: Okay, I know I just said we don’t want to deflate the batter, however, sometimes in the time it takes to portion the batter out into the pans, the batter in the bowls starts to rise due to the baking powder. For some reason I found when I didn’t deflate the batter after this happened, the madeleines that were scooped from inflated batter didn’t develop the proper hump. So just take the cookie scoop and very lightly deflate the batter if it has begun to rise.
Tip 7) Freeze them: After you’re done scooping the pistachio 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.
SUBSTITUTING FLOUR WITH GROUND PISTACHIOS
Did you know that you can substitute up to 50% of a cake’s flour with ground nuts without compromising the structure of the cake? As such, in developed this pistachio madeleine recipe, I substituted 1/4 of the flour with the ground pistachios. This would ensure the cake still had excellent structure, while adding that amazing nutty pistachio flavor!
Making the Pistachio Rosewater Madeleines
1.Grind flour and pistachios in food processor: Add the flour and the pistachios to a food processor, and pulse multiple times until the pistachios look pretty finely ground.
2. Sift flour/pistachio mixture: Using a fine-mesh sieve, sift the mixture over a bowl that is placed over top of a food scale. Once the mixture is as sifted as it can be, discard the large pistachio pieces, and add extra flour to make the weight of the mixture equal 120g.
3. Add salt and baking powder: Add the salt and baking powder to the pistachio flour, then whisk until well-combined.
4. Whip sugar and eggs: Add sugar and eggs 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.
5. Add flavors: Add the vanilla, pistachio extract, and rose water to the stand mixer, and mix until combined.
6. Add dry to wet: Remove the stand mixer bowl from the machine, then add the dry ingredients to the stand mixer bowl. Using a whisk, lightly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet batter. Don’t be too aggressive, as you don’t want to deflate the batter.
7. Fold in butter: Delicately fold the melted 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.
8. 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.
9. Dip in chocolate: Finally, dip the cooled pistachio madeleines into melted white chocolate and sprinkle with crushed pistachios.
Get the Recipe: Pistachio Rosewater Madeleines
Ingredients
- 90 g All Purpose Flour,, plus more if needed
- 40 g Shelled, Unsalted Pistachios
- 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/8 tsp Salt
- 2 Large Eggs
- 1/2 cup White Sugar
- 1/2 tsp Vanilla
- 1/2 tsp Rosewater
- 1/4 tsp Pistachio Extract or Almond Extract
- 1/2 cup Unsalted Butter,, melted
- 1/2 cup Melted White Chocolate,, for dipping
- Crushed Pistachios,, for decorating
Equipment
- Stand mixer
- Madeleine Pans
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare 2 madeleine pans by brushing them well with cooking spray.
- Add pistachios and flour to a food processor and pulse until the pistachios are well-ground and fine in texture (don’t over process as pistachios will eventually turn into a paste). Place a medium sized mixing bowl over top of a food scale, then sift the flour mixture into the bowl, discarding any large pistachio pieces left over. The mixture should weigh 120g, if it weighs less, then add more flour until 120g is achieved.
- Add baking powder and salt to the flour mixture, then whisk to combine. Set aside.
- Add eggs and sugar 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. Add vanilla, rosewater, and pistachio extract, mix until just combined.
- Remove the bowl from the stand mixer, then add the dry ingredients to the bowl. Lightly whisk the dry ingredients into the batter, only mixing until just combined.
- Delicately fold the 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 1½” 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 and place onto a wire rack to cool.
- When cooled, dip each madeleine into the melted white chocolate and decorate with crushed pistachios.
These turned out delicious! I had a bit of trouble taking the Madeleines out of the pan but was able to cover them with the white chocolate. I tried another Madeleine recipe last week where the flavour and texture were no where near as good!
That’s amazing! Thanks!
I’m looking forward to making these for my colleagues. I was wondering what the pink decoration is you put on the madeleines because the recipe only asks for crushed pistachios. Looks awesome!
Hi! It’s culinary grade dried rose petals!