Just like the classic little French tea cake, these gluten-free madeleines are tender, golden, shell-shaped and fragrant with the scent of lemons. These little delicacies are beautifully light and spongey, easily made and delicious to eat, perfect with a cup of tea or coffee.
¾cup(115 g) gluten-free plain flourplus extra for the baking tins
1teaspoongluten-free baking powder
¼teaspoonsalt
2teaspoonfinely grated lemon zest *
pure icing/confectioners' sugar *for dusting, optional
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180 Degrees C (350°F).
Prepare the baking trays by heating 20 gm (USA 1 ½ tbsp) of butter in a small saucepan until it is almost melted. Use a pastry brush to generously paint the madeleine trays with the melted butter.
Dust the baking tins with a sprinkling of additional flour and shake off the excess*.
Melt the remaining 90 gm (USA 6 ½ tbsp) of butter over low heat. Set aside to cool.
When the butter is cool, add it to the bowl of a food processor along with the eggs, sugar, vanilla, flour, baking powder, salt and lemon zest.
Whiz all the ingredients together to combine them, scraping down the sides of the bowl once during processing.
Evenly divide the batter between the moulds. They 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 feel 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. Place them on a baking rack to finish cooling.
Dust with icing/confectioners’ to serve*. (optional)
Although best eaten on the day they are made they are also delicious two days after – if they last long!
Video
Notes
* Nutritional information is calculated per madeleine. * Our gluten-free flour blends contain either xanthan or guar gum to stabilise and provide structure to our recipes. If your flour blend already contains either of these gums, there is no need to add more. *For the best flavour I recommend good quality vanilla extract, not artificially flavoured vanilla.* You could use orange or lime zest if you prefer.*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.*I like the madeleines dusted with icing/confectioners’ 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.*Ensure that the icing/confectioners’ sugar is gluten-free. To be certain, I use pure icing sugar; some icing sugar mixtures contain wheat flour.* The madeleines freeze beautifully, but if you do freeze them, dust them with icing/confectioners’ sugar just before serving.*The Australian tablespoon is 20ml or 4 teaspoons. In most other countries the tablespoon is 15ml or 3 teaspoons.