Last year I bought a madeline pan at an antique store on the way up to Asheville and tried a few times to make these sweet shell shaped cookies. All of the iterations sucked and stuck to the pan, despite my best efforts. When I saw a blogger championing Julia Child's recipe and method, I was like, if anything will work, it's this one. So even with a kind of annoying process (as many Julia recipes are, right?) I set out to make the exact recipe, only substituting half of the sugar for this bourbon barrel aged vanilla sugar I have been meaning to finish off.
These fluffy on the inside with a crisp crunch as you bite in cookies are delicious straight up, but I wanted to sass them up a little further with a sweet bourbon drizzle too. I wasn't feeling coming up with a bourbon drizzle recipe on my own tonight, so mad props to this awesome one I halved from Creative Culinary. It was the perfect amount for 12 maddies.
Bourbon Sugar Madeleines with a Bourbon Drizzle
Ingredients
Madeleines
- 2 large eggs beaten
- ⅓ cup white sugar
- ⅓ cup vanilla bourbon sugar
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 4 ounces unsalted butter
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 tbsp flour
- ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
For the drizzle
- 6 tbsp brown sugar
- ¼ cup bourbon
- ½ tbsp unsalted butter
Instructions
- Per original recipe, all ingredients should be brought to room temperature before mixing so that the melted butter does not congeal in the batter before the ingredients have blended together.
- Combine flour and sugars in a mixing bowl and add three quarters of the eggs. Beat vigorously with a wooden spoon to blend into a heavy cream – if very stiff, add a little bit of the remaining egg, one droplet at a time. Set aside for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, bring all of the butter to a boil until it begins to brown very lightly. Remove 1 ½ tablespoons of the butter and combine with and tablespoon of flour in a small bowl and set aside.
- Set the pan with butter in it into a larger vessel that will fit it that has been filled with cool water. Beat the remaining bit of egg (if any, I put all of my eggs in at the beginning) into the batter and stir in the cool butter. Stir in the salt and vanilla.
- Cover the batter, and set aside in the refrigerator for at least one hour. Meanwhile, use a rubber brush to paint the madeleine cups with a light coating of the browned butter and flour mixture, brushing away any pools that form in the bottom. Set aside or refrigerate if the kitchen is warm.
- Preheat the oven to 375°. Using a spoon and rubber spatula, drop a rounded tablespoonful of batter into each Madeleine cup. Do not spread the batter to fill the mold. More is not better here. Repeat with remaining batter and mold. You may have a little batter left over. Either make the 2-3 extras or throw out the leftover batter.
- Set pans on the middle rack and bake for about 15 minutes. The batter will spread on its own to fill the cups and a hump will gradually form in the middle. Unmold onto a rack, humped side up.
- Meanwhile, mix the drizzle ingredients in a small pot and still over high heat until combined. Let boil for a minute, stirring well to avoid caramelization. Remove from heat and set aside for a while.
- Sprinkle the tops of the cooled madelines with a dusting of confectioner’s sugar and drizzle with syrup if eating immediately, or dip into the syrup otherwise, as they will get gross if you leave them out with syrup on them.
