Yield: 24 cookies
Recipe: 126/200
“Back to Baking”, pp. 37
As the weeks of quarantine are prolonged, my supply of flour is decreasing at an alarming rate. I have only a few more recipes’ worth of flour as there is a nation-wide shortage and I have been unable to get my hands on some, so I have to choose my last few bakes carefully. Of course I was looking for a little cookie or hand-held dessert to eat with tea in the evenings. And so came these chocolate-dipped madeleine cookies.
These cookies are interesting because they look like cookies but have more the consistency of a cake. They are like small, very cute portable cakes. They are simply delicious and the orange purée in the cookie really comes through, marrying very well with the chocolate. To be made time and time again, undoubtedly.
Ingredients:
- 1 medium-sized navel orange
- ½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup ground almonds
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup chocolate chips
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a madeleine pan, tapping out any excess flour.
- Roughly chop the whole orange, with the peel on, making sure to remove any seeds, and place in a small saucepot. Cover the orange with water and simmer until almost all the liquid has evaporated, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat, cool, then purée in a blender. Measure ½ cup of the puréed orange to use for the madeleines.
- Note: When reading this recipe I was very uncertain whether I really truly had to put the whole orange, peel included, into the pot with water. It seemed so counter-intuitive! But yes, you must. During the time in which the water will evaporate almost completely, the orange peel will soften and lose all its bitterness. Perfect and simple way to make a lovely orange purée.
- I didn’t have a navel orange so used a blood orange instead, and it worked out very well. The purée by itself tasted very nice and citrusy, full of flavour.
- I don’t have an actual blender so used my hand mixer instead, and that also worked out for me. A food processor should also do the trick if you are in a pickle.
- Using a stand or hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs and mix until well combined.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, ground almonds, baking powder and salt. Add this to the butter mixture, stirring until just incorporated.
- Stir in the ½ cup of orange purée.
- Spoon the batter by tablespoonfuls into the prepared madeleine pan and bake for 18-20 minutes, until golden brown. Let the madeleines cool in the pan before gently removing.
- Note: these madeleine cookies change colour quite quickly near the end, so make sure to keep an eye on them starting about 16 minutes to make sure that they don’t become too brown and overbaked.
- Melt the chocolate chips by stirring them in a metal bowl placed over a pot of barely simmering water. Dip each madeleine halfway into the melted chocolate, shake off excess and place each on a sheet of parchment paper to set. Store in an airtight container.
Valerie
Valerie 