Gluten-Free Lemon Madeleines

Gluten-Free Lemon Madeleine dusted with icing/powdered sugar, or a cooling rack, which is sitting on a white towel.

You will love my Gluten-Free Lemon Madeleines which are light with a tender crumb and the bright, tangy flavour of lemon. With their pleasantly curved shell shape, these classic French teacakes have an elegant appearance, yet are made from simple, everyday ingredients. They are ideal for morning or afternoon tea or served as dessert with our No-Churn Lemon Ice Cream.

Course Afternoon Tea, Dessert, Morning Tea

Cuisine French

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 10

Total Time 30

Servings Madeleines

Calories 75kcal

Author Alexandra Cook - It's Not Complicated Recipes

Equipment

2 12-hole Madeleine baking trays

Ingredients

For Preparing the Tins:

1 tablespoon unsalted butter - melted See Note 1
1 tablespoon gluten-free plain/all-purpose flour See Note 2

For the Gluten-Free Lemon Madeleines:

90 g unsalted butter - melted and cooled
2 large eggs - at room temperature
115 g caster/superfine sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
115 g gluten-free plain/all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder See Note 3
¼ teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoon lemon zest - finely grated
pure icing/powdered sugar - for dusting, optional See Note 3

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180 Degrees C (355 F).
Prepare the baking trays. Use a pastry brush to generously paint the holes of the madeleine trays with the 1 tablespoon of melted butter.
Dust the baking tins with the 1 tablespoon of flour and shake off any excess flour. (See Note 4.)
Add all of your ingredients to the bowl of a food processor.
Blend all the ingredients together to combine them, scraping down the sides of the bowl once during processing.
Evenly divide the batter between the moulds - you'll want roughly 3-4 teaspoon of mixture. The moulds will be about ½ full. It is not necessary to spread the mixture in the mould; it will spread as it cooks.
Bake the madeleines for 8-10 minutes, until golden brown, the mixture has risen a little in the middle and they are cooked.
Cool them in the tray for one minute.
Set a clean tea towel on your bench and then remove the madeleines by sharply rapping an edge of the tray on the bench. They should easily fall out.
Serve warm, or place them on a baking rack to finish cooling. Dust with icing/powdered sugar prior to serving.

Video

Notes

Tablespoon: we use a standard Australian tablespoon which is 20 ml (4 teaspoons). For readers located elsewhere in the world, please use 1 tablespoon + 1 tsp.
Flour: we use a good quality commercial gluten-free flour blend. The blend we use contains xanthan gum to stabilise and provide structure to the recipe. If your flour blend already contains xanthan gum, there is no need to add more.
Baking powder/icing sugar: ensure it is gluten-free.
Preparation of the tins: it is important to prepare the baking tins with melted butter and a dusting of flour. It ensures that the madeleines will be easily released from the tins.
Serving: I like to serve the Gluten-Free Madeleines with a dusting of icing/powdered sugar. However, you may prefer to leave them plain, dip them into a simple icing or you could melt some chocolate of your choice and dip the tips of the madeleines into that.
Storage: ideally, they are best eaten on the day they are baked, fresh from the oven. However, they are still delicious up to day three.
Freezing: wait until they are thoroughly cooled then wrap the little cakes in cling wrap and place them into the freezer in an airtight container. This is to prevent them drying out in the freezer. Store them for about 2 months. Thaw them at room temperature and reheat for just a few minutes.

Nutrition