One of the big problems I find with specialty pans is that we buy them, all excited for the possibilities, use the pan once and then it goes into the cabinet, never seen again until the kitchen gets cleaned out for a yard sale or spring cleaning. So I'm all about making lots of recipes for these specialty pans so they stay in regular rotation. That's where these chocolate rose madeleines come in. Plus madeleines are cookie sized cakes, and who doesn't love that thought?
I just made bourbon sugar madeleines recently and subbed out some of the flour for cocoa powder and made a few other tweaks. For those who are thinking "ew, I don't want to taste flowers!" I have a solution for you in the ingredients.
And always follow the pan buttering method described here, it's the ONLY one that's ever worked consistently for me! If you won't want the white stripes, use cocoa instead, but I like the color variation.
Chocolate Rose Madeleines
Ingredients
- One madeline pan
- 2 large eggs beaten
- ⅔ cup white sugar
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- 4 ounces unsalted butter
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 tbsp flour
- ½ tsp rose water Not into rose? Sub in ½ tsp vanilla extract
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, cocoa, and sugar 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 rose water (or vanilla if using).
- 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.
You can dust with powdered sugar if desired but I like seeing the striations from the butter and flour against the darkness of the cocoa. Or get super fancy and melt chocolate to dip these in and immediately dust them with crushed dried rose petals. But we're just going low-key here today on these so they come undipped and unflowered.
