I love lemons. I love freshly squeezed lemonade, lemon cakes, limoncello (especially as a syrup soaked into cakes!), Absolut Citron, lemon curd...everything about lemons! When I'm baking I often reach for short cuts, especially when I have two little boys at my ankles, but when I have some extra time, it's much more rewarding to make things from scratch. I was hosting a clothes shopping coffee morning and needed some baked goodies to feed everyone and decided to make this lovely Madeleine recipe but no short cuts on the lemon curd - homemade all the way this time!
This is my absolute favourite Madeleine recipe and it's from Rachel Khoo's Little Paris Kitchen. I remember seeing her make these years ago when she had the Saturday morning show and it has been a firm favourite of mine ever since - but I'll confess that I usually reach for the store-bought lemon curd to save on time. Madeleines are always best served straight from the oven, but what I love about this recipe is that after you make the batter, you then refrigerate it and can leave it there overnight. And to make the process even easier, I store it in a piping bag, ready to pipe straight into the Madeleine tins the morning of baking. It does take a bit of concentration to bake them (and I can be easily distracted by kitchen chat with my friends!) so I make sure I religiously use timers to keep me focused.
Once made, the lemon curd is kept in the fridge overnight to set but it was really simple to make - and there's nothing better than the scent of freshly squeezed lemons bubbling away on the stove. I made double the quantity of this as my little boy has requested a special sweet treat for his birthday at the weekend and lemon is his favourite flavour too :)
Raspberry & Lemon Curd Madeleines (from Rachel Khoo's Little Paris Kitchen)
Lemon Curd Ingredients
- 1 UNWAXED LEMON (JUICE AND FINELY GRATED ZEST ONLY)
- PINCH OF SALT
- 40G SUGAR
- 45G BUTTER
- 2 FREE-RANGE EGG YOLKS
Lemon Curd Method
- Place the lemon zest and juice, salt, sugar and butter into a small saucepan and heat gently until the sugar and butter have melted. Remove from the heat.
- Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl, then add to the pan and whisk vigorously. Return the pan to a low heat and whisk constantly as the curd starts to thicken. Keep whisking until one or two bubbles start to appear and the curd coats the back of a metal spoon.
- Pass the curd through a sieve into a bowl, cover with clingfilm (preferably so that the clingfilm is in direct contact with the surface of the curd) and put into the refrigerator overnight.
Madeleine Ingredients
- 2 FREE-RANGE EGGS
- 130G SUGAR
- 200G PLAIN FLOUR
- 10G BAKING POWDER
- 1 UNWAXED LEMON (FINELY GRATED ZEST ONLY)
- 20G HONEY
- 4TSBP MILK
- 200G BUTTER (MELTED & COOLED)
- PUNNET OF RASPBERRIES (OR AT LEAST 24 RASPBERRIES)
- ICING SUGAR (FOR DUSTING)
Madeleine Method
- Heat the oven to 190 degrees.
- Melt the butter and put aside to cool down.
- Beat the eggs with the sugar until pale and frothy. Put the flour and baking powder into a separate bowl and add the lemon zest.
- Mix the honey and milk with the cooled butter, then add to the eggs and stir through. In two batches, fold in the flour. Cover and leave in the fridge for a few hours or overnight - I store it in a piping bag so I'm ready to go when it's time to bake.
- When you're ready to bake them, butter and flour two 12-shell Madeleine tins and put around 1 heaped tablespoon of batter into each shell. Then place a raspberry deep into each Madeleine.
- Bake for 5 minutes and turn the oven off for 1 minute. Then turn the oven back on to 160 degrees for a further 5 minutes. Remove from the oven, ease the Madeleines gently out of their tin and cool on a cooling rack for a few minutes.
- Place a little lemon curd in a piping bag and squirt a little into each Madeleine.
- Then try not to eat the whole batch in one go!