Madeline Cookies Recipe

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Ingredients For the madeleines: 2 medium eggs100g soft light brown sugar1 tbsp treacle, plus a little extra for decoration, to decorate the syllabub¼ tsp star anise – you can buy this ground or grind a load up yourself100gplain flour, sifted, plus extra for dusting1 tsp baking powder100gunsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus extra for greasing tin150gdark chocolate, melted and cooled for the syllabub:300mldouble cream50gcaster sugar zest and juice of ½ a grapefruit

Essential kit You will need an electric hand whisk and a 12-hole madeleine tray.

Method Start by making the madeleine mixture. Add the eggs, sugar, and treacle to a bowl and whisk until the mixture is light and fluffy. This should take 5 minutes using an electric hand whisk. Now add the star anise, flour, baking powder, and melted butter and mix through till you have a smooth cake batter. Set this aside and leave for 20 minutes, uncovered. Meanwhile, you can be getting on with the syllabus. Add the cream and sugar to a bowl and whisk until the cream begins to thicken. Now add the zest and juice of ½ a grapefruit and whisk until the cream comes to stiff peaks. Transfer into a serving dish, cover and now the syllabus can go in the fridge until you’re ready to eat. Now preheat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Grease the inside of a 12-hole madeleine tray, lightly flour, and tip out any excess. You want to make sure all the little grooves are covered – this will just ensure the cakes pop right out of the mold. If you don’t have a madeleine mold, you can use the inside of a shallow fairy cake/jam tart tin, greasing and flouring the same way, or you could use mini tartlet tins, again greasing and flouring as before. Drop just enough mixture into the cavity so it is about ½cm shy of the top. Repeat this with all 12 and bake in the oven for 8–10 minutes, until you have a little dimple that’s risen on top and they are a medium golden brown. As soon as they are out of the oven, leave them in the tray for 10 minutes. With the leftover batter, keep making more until you have no mixture left. Leave them to cool, which shouldn’t take long. Have ready a sheet of baking paper large enough to place all the madeleines on. When they have cooled, dip a corner at an angle encasing just a third of the Madeline into the melted chocolate, and pop onto the baking paper for the chocolate to set. Repeat with the rest. Serve the madeleines alongside the chilled syllabus, giving it a drizzle of some extra treacle before eating! Best eaten as soon as the chocolate sets or will keep in a tin for 2 days.