No. 3314

Madeleines and Genoese Madeleines

Madeleines et Madeleines Genoises

Place in a vessel nine ounces of sugar, nine ounces of warm melted butter, seven ounces of flour, five whole eggs, four yolks, two spoonfuls of brandy, a grain of salt and some sugar flavored with lemon peel (No. 3165). Stir the ingredients well with a spoon and heat the preparation for two minutes without ceasing to stir, then fill some buttered Madeleine molds two-thirds full; bake them in a slack oven.

Genoese Madeleines are made with eighteen ounces of sugar, eighteen ounces of flour, eighteen ounces of melted butter, eight egg-yolks, eight beaten whites, some chopped lemon peel, four spoonfuls of rum and a grain of salt; fill buttered Madeleine molds, bake, finish and serve as above.

← No. 3313 Lafayette with Rum Small Cakes for Entremets No. 3315 Commercy Madeleines →

For the Modern Kitchen

Two batters for shell molds, both leavened only by air and steam. The instruction that decides success is the brief warming of the mixture: it emulsifies the melted butter into the eggs, and it must stay lukewarm, not hot.

The two-minute heatingWarm the mixed batter over a very low flame or in a bain-marie, stirring without stopping, only until it is smooth and lukewarm to the finger. Keep it well short of the point at which the yolks begin to set, or the batter turns grainy.
"Slack oven"A slack or slow oven is 300-325F. Small madeleine molds need roughly 12-16 minutes at that heat; they should be pale gold with a domed center.
Weights in cupsFor the first batter: 9 oz sugar is about 1 1/4 cups, 9 oz butter is 2 1/4 sticks, 7 oz flour is about 1 2/3 cups. For the Genoese: 18 oz each of sugar, flour and butter, which is about 2 1/2 cups sugar, 4 cups flour, 4 1/2 sticks butter.
"Spoonfuls" and "a grain of salt"Ranhofer's "spoonful" is generally taken to mean a tablespoon, so two of brandy and four of rum respectively. A grain of salt means no more than a pinch.
Lemon-flavored sugarNo. 3165 is Ranhofer's lemon-flavored sugar, ordinarily made by rubbing sugar against lemon zest until it takes up the oil. Substitute the finely grated zest of one lemon worked into a few tablespoons of the sugar with your fingers.
The Genoese whitesThe second formula whips the eight whites separately; fold them in last so the foam is not knocked down. Neither version uses baking powder, so that air is the only lift.
MoldsButter the shell molds heavily and chill them before filling; a modern nonstick madeleine pan still benefits from butter for the ridged pattern. Two-thirds full is correct, as advised.
YieldThe first batter makes about 30 standard madeleines, the Genoese roughly twice that. Both are meant as an entremets sweet, served plain the day they are baked.

A Little History

Madeleines belong to Commercy in Lorraine, and Ranhofer gives that town its own recipe in the next entry (No. 3315); the shell-shaped little cake is traditionally said to have been named for a servant or cook called Madeleine who made them for an eighteenth-century patron, a story repeated everywhere and documented nowhere. What is solid is the technique: this is a butter sponge in the pre-baking-powder manner, lifted only by beaten egg and by the warming step that emulsifies a very large quantity of melted butter into the eggs before it can separate out. The "Genoese" version is distinguished by its stiffer proportions of equal sugar, flour and butter, with whipped whites doing the work. Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, printed The Epicurean in 1894 as a working reference for a restaurant kitchen; the entry gives quantities in ounces and assumes the reader already owns madeleine molds.