Madeleine Recipe with An Unexpected Twist

Madeleines are simple sponge cake-like cookies - so simple that you probably have all of the typical madeleine recipe ingredients in your house right now: eggs, salt, sugar, flour and butter.  The only thing that you may not have is a madeleine pan.

Isn't the madeleine a snotty cookie to require her own pan?  But, like a little girl in blue jeans and ratty T-shirt who puts on a princess hat and becomes royalty, the madeleine pan makes this simple cookie regal (more importantly, you can't make madeleines without it).  Get one (make sure it's non-stick - it makes it so easy) for the baker on your Christmas list.

What's the Unexpected Twist in My Madeleine Recipe?

Madeleine recipes often contain vanilla extract and lemon zest.  Mine are a bit... umm... different.  I made mushroom madeleines!  I baked up my madeleines using a little bit of dried candy cap mushrooms from Oregon Mushrooms.  If you read my post on candy cap mushrooms, you'll know that candy caps are mushrooms with a maple flavor.  I wanted to see if my mushroom madeleines would taste like maple madeleines - they did!  The flavor wasn't particularly strong (although it did get stronger after the cookies sat overnight), but you could definitely taste a maple flavor. No one would ever guess that the madeleines contained mushrooms.

If the mushroom madeleines taste mapley, why not use maple?  You could use maple (I'll tell you how in the recipe), but it sure is fun (if you are a geeky foodie) to invite your guests to eat mushroom cookies.

Madeleine Recipe

My madeleine recipe is a twist on a madeleine recipe from All Recipes. 

Yield: 12 madeleine cookies

• 2 eggs
• 1/4 C unsalted butter
• 3/4 tsp ground dried candy cap mushrooms or 1/2 tsp maple extract
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/3 C sugar
• 1/2 C all-purpose flour

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. In a small saucepan or microwave oven, melt butter and let cool to room temperature.
3. In a small mixing bowl, beat eggs, candy caps or extract, and salt until fully combined.
4. Beating constantly, gradually add sugar. Continue beating for five to ten minutes at high speed until mixture is thick and pale and ribbons form in bowl when beaters are lifted.
5. Sift flour into egg mixture 1/3 at a time, gently folding after each addition.
6. Pour melted butter around edge of batter.
7. Quickly but gently fold butter into batter.
8. Divide batter evenly among the madeleine molds.  I found that the easiest way to do this was to use two spoons - one to get a spoonful of batter from the bowl, and one to scrape the batter off of the spoon and into the pan. (If your madeleine pan is non stick, you do not need to grease the pan first.  If your pan is not non-stick, butter the pan before filling the molds.)
9. Bake 14 to 17 minutes, or until cakes are golden and the tops spring back when gently pressed with your fingertip.
10. Eat the madeleines on their own, dunked in coffee or hot chocolate, or spread some frosting on them.