Chocolate madeleines

Following on from my earlier bake off post.

This week was interesting, not much baking actually, lots of stove top work, until we got the petits fours. There was some beautiful little creations going on. I wanted to eat Becas's beautiful baby macarons and Ruby's shortbread white chocolate creations.

These are one of my petit four from the weekend. Perhaps my least glamorous one but absolutely delicious.

Enjoy.

Chocolate madeleines

makes 16

1 egg
120g golden caster sugar
1/2  tsp vanilla paste
80g plain flour
15g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp finely ground instant coffee or a tablespoon of freshly made coffee
80g butter
25g white chocolate

Preheat the oven to 170C/150C FAN and lightly grease your madeleine tin. Gently melt the butter, then side aside to cool. 

Whisk the egg, sugar and vanilla until thick, moussey and very pale in colour. Add the flour, coffee and cocoa powder and gently fold in with a metal spoon. When the flour is almost incorporated add about a tablespoon of the melted butter and fold in. Add half the remaining butter and continue to fold in, once it is incorporated add the remaining butter and fold in. You should be left with a lovely glossy mix.

Fill the prepared tin with the mix, you can use a spoon, I used a piping bag to pipe a line into each tin, this way I hoped to get them similar sizes. 

Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden. Allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Melt the white chocolate, put in a piping bad and snip off the corner, pipe a zig zag, or design off your choice, on each madeleine. 

These were more chocolatey than I thought they could be and really really good with a cup of tea or coffee.  

'Bake along with Bake Off' - Desserts- Petits fours

So this week its desserts. Trifle, Iles flottants and petits fours await the brave contestants. Now Mark does now like trifle, Iles flottants floats not our boats so by default petite fours it was! Ok so it was more work but at the end you get to eat lots of little cakes!

I was doing this in advance of the show so could only guess the exact nature of the challenge. I know they have to make 24 and assume they would have to make eight each of three type,s or four each of six. I went for 3. I do not know how long they have but have timed myself to compare.

I made almond and raspberry meringue kisses, pistachio salambos (from one of the bake off books) and double chocolate madelines.  The meringue post is below, I will post the other two items in the next couple of days.

They are all really really good, I am finding it hard to chose a favourite I keep changing my mind, Mark thinks the mini pistachio choux buns just edge into the lead.

Either way I am very very impressed with what I have achieved and Paul and Mary would be in trouble if they disagreed!

I am very excited about the bake off tonight, as always, but tonight will be better with a plate of these treats.

Almond and raspberry meringue kisses

makes 14-16 pairs

2 egg whites
pinch cream of tartar
1/2 tsp almond extract
100g caster sugar
pink food colouring (optional)

100ml double cream
2 tablespoons raspberry jam

First line a baking sheet with parchment paper, I actually used my silicon macaron sheet/guide but I suspect not everyone owns such a thing, and preheat the oven to 120C/100C FAN.

Put the egg whites in spotless grease free bowl, I use a metal one, along with the cream of tartar. Whisk until stiffish peaks are forming, add in half the sugar and almond extract and whisk until stiff glossy peaks are beginning to form before whisking in the rest of the sugar, you need nice stiff, shiny peaks but take care not to over beat.

I chose to paint a few stripes of food colouring on the inside of the piping bag but this is completely optional. Spoon the meringue mix into the piping bag fitted with a star tip.

Pipe teeny meringues into your prepared sheets. There are two ways to do it, either swirl it, the food colouring will give a spiral.

Or pipe straight down and you will get lines.

Bake in the oven for 1 hour to 90 minutes (I know, I know, its a broad range) until dry and crisp. Leave on the sheet until cool then gently peel away.

To fill whip the cream until soft peaks form then whisk in the raspberry jam. Pop the cream into a bag fitted with  star tip and pipe a good star shaped dollop onto half the meringues. Sandwich with another meringue and eat!

Honey Madeleines

I was very excited to receive a Madeleine tin for Christmas  I had been craving one, bearing in mind I had never even tried a Madeline it was an odd tin to crave.

As it turns out my cravings were spot on, I fell in love with Madeleine's after my first bite. I am not usually a honey fan, finding it a bit sweet, but I love its flavour and it works beautifully in these.  I have actually made them a couple of times but without access to my camera so its taken a while for me to share them here.

For the uninitiated a Madeleine is of French origin (so I believe, feel free to correct me if I am wrong), traditionally flavoured with honey and made in a special Madeleine tin, giving the cake a shell-like shape.

There does not seem to be a hard and fast way to make these and so the recipe below is my take on the basic Madeleine. Apologies for the photos, my oven is a hot oven and I forgot to compensate and my Madeleine turned a wee bit darker than I would have liked. Still yummy though and there is a  photo to prove that the inside is light and fluffy!

Honey Madeleine

makes ~15

75g butter
1 egg
120g caster sugar
83g plain flour
15g honey

Preheat the oven to 170C/150C FAN and lightly grease your Madeleine tin. Gently melt the butter, then side aside to cool. 

Whisk the egg and sugar until thick, moussey and very pale in colour. Add the flour and gently fold in with a melted spoon. When the flour is almost incorporated add about a tablespoon of the melted butter and fold in. Add half the remaining butter and continue to fold in, once it is incorporated add the remaining butter and fold in. Add the honey and fold in until there are no swirls of butter or honey remaining. You should be left with a lovely glossy mix.

Fill each Madeleine mould ~3/4 full. Don't worry it the batter does not spread to fill it, it will do this as it bakes.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden. Allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. 

When completely cool dust with icing sugar.

These are at their most delicious on the day that they are made. They will however keep in a tin for a day or so, they will become slightly more dense and sticky but still taste good.