Madeleines

This small piece of joy is a French classic. When I went for a trip in Paris I made sure that I'll buy myself a piece or two.  I tried Laduree's. Unfortunately, it was dry. Maybe because I bought it late in the afternoon, hence, it wasn't that fresh. 

Majority of the recipes I have read are mixed using sponge method. The eggs are mixed at a high speed until thick, light in color and volume has somewhat doubled or simply, until ribbon stage. Even the recipe that I used before uses the same method. Recently, I came across French Food Safari on TV and they demonstrated Madeleines. It is simpler for there's no need to use a mixer. I tested it last week and it yielded good results, although I tweaked it slightly.

Orange Poppyseed  Madeleines
adapted from French Food Safari

Ingredients:

40 g unsalted butter
100 g white sugar
1/2 t baking powder
100 g plain flour or 50 g plain flour & 50 g cake flour*
zest from one orange
1 1/2 t poppyseeds
1 egg
30 ml milk

Procedure:
1. Pre-heat oven at 350 F or 170 C.
2. In a bowl, put the white sugar, baking powder and flour together. Mix slightly using a whisk.
3. Meanwhile, melt butter in a pan until slightly brown in color (it has better nutty taste).
4. Add the zest into the melted butter (I prefer my zest to come in contact with butter to infuse the flavour better).
5. Slowly pour the melted butter into the dry ingredients and mix until blended.
6. Put the batter in the fridge for 30 mins or so.
7. Grease the pan using canola or vegetable oil spray and sprinkle with flour, tap & remove excess flour.
8. Spoon or pipe out the batter and bake for 11 to 13 mins or until done.

Note:
* I also tested the recipe using half plain flour & half cake flour. I want to achieve a softer texture than using plain flour. You can, by all means, use 100% plain flour.