Madeleines are shell-shaped beloved cakes for French. They are are small cakes with the most delicious interior which is buttery, fluffy,  soft and the cakes form a slight crusty texture on the outside. It is best served warm and fresh. Many refer Madeleines as cookies owing to the fact that it’s small like cookies and biscuits. 

The authentic recipe of madeleines calls for a fluffy egg base which results in the fluffy interior. But many of us don’t use eggs at home. So an eggless recipe that results in a good Madeline was my objective. 

If you see, we Indians have discovered the eggless versions of almost all the bakes. Which is incredible, something we take pride in. 

The old recipes don’t call for Baking powder or baking soda, as the fluffy eggs help the cakes to rise. I think we need raising agent madeleine’s characteristic fluffy texture in an egg-less version. A combination of 1/2 tsp of baking powder and 1/8th tsp of baking soda works very well along with buttermilk. 

The recipe calls for a chilling time. Consider this as an essential step in the recipe. Because the batter is chilled prior to baking, the temperature difference between the oven and the batter creates a burst of steam that results in the classic hump.

The pan gives Madeleine its characteristic shape. We use cast iron or non-stick pan for Madeleine baking. Madeleine pan is very essential to make these beauties. The pan gets the credit for the shape, the crisp edge, the lovely vibrant gold colour. 

The heat circulation is different in these pans when compared with silicon pan. 

I have a silicon Madeleine pan and it was a wrong choice. By all means a non-stick heavy metal Madeleine pan is the right thing to buy. 

I think Madeleines are best eaten the day they are made. But they will last in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. 

If you choose to keep them for a day or more, don’t dust them with powdered sugar, place them in an air-tight container. 

Citrussy flavours are more popular in Madeleines. You can play around with many other flavours. If we can omit eggs and make madeleines, we defiantly can go broad in flavours, saffron, cardamom, chocolate, pistachio, berries, coffee, I mean any flavour can do justice to these beautiful cakes. 

I have been very experimental in my Madeleine making activity and made coconut jaggery madeleines. You can see the recipe here 

The post Eggless Madeleines appeared first on 2 Bliss of Baking.