Madeleine

Every year around the holidays we have some family friends over for dinner and celebration. Up until this year the adults were buying gifts for the "children". As the children are getting older, harder to shop for and more numerous with the additions of significant others, we decided to mix things up and do a gift exchange. The theme was rainy day and there was a dollar limit so people wouldn't go overboard and spend too much. I had an idea to buy a muffin or baking pan and a cookbook to go with it. I made the mistake of telling my parents about it and before I knew it, my mom had snagged my idea and told me to find something else. If i remember her exact words 'sorry honey, that idea is taken now, find something else' ouch. Well I did end up finding another gift idea, and in the end as fate had it, I ended up with the baking gift my mom picked out- a cooling rack, madeleine pan - traditional french cookies with a sponge cake texture-

This is what a madeleine pan looks like:

and a cookie cookbook by Lilach german called Cookies, Cookies & more Cookies. It's great and what I really love about it, is that it has a whole section on healthier cookies and granola bars etc. Haha I love the healthy stuff so much that I decided to save that for a later date and try out these madeleine!! They were surprisingly easy to make and turned out really well!! In a family of chocoholics I will be experimenting with making these chocolate- perhaps coco powder. Until then these are delightful to have with coffee, served with jam or nutella, or just on their own.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
- 3 eggs
- 3/4 cup sugar ( I just realized that I read that as 1/4 cup..so i guess mine are less sweet!)
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1/4 cup milk
- 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 3/4 sticks butter, melted ( mine exploded allover the microwave so i think i ended up with less)
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Directions:
1. using a mixer, mix together eggs and sugar for 5 minutes until light and fluffy (A standing mixer would be great for this, but hand mixer works just fine) Add honey, milk, vanilla extract and butter and whisk until combined
2. In  separate bowl, sift flour and baking powder
3. Gradually add flour mixture to wet mixture and whisk until smooth
4. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for at least 30 minutes in fridge
5. Preheat oven to 350 and butter the madeleine pan
6. Pour chilled batter into mould, filling each one to the top. In my case the batter was not really pourable, as it was thicker and so I spooned it in. Bake for 15 minutes
7. Allow to cool before serving.

Enjoy!!

I made 1.5 pans worth with the batter- as I have 1 pan I made one round and then another.