Jasmine Madeleines

I love cooking Thai food at home, so one of my favorite stores in New York City is Bangkok Mart, a small Thai food store in Chinatown. It has just about every Thai product you could ever need, and the staff is super friendly and always willing to answer questions.  My most recent discovery there: jasmine syrup and jasmine essence. Jasmine syrup is perfect for cocktails (jasmine sidecar anyone??) and I’m looking forward to using it in sorbets and to brush onto sponge cakes. Jasmine essence is much more intense than the syrup; if you don’t have a Southeast Asian store near you, it can be found online (also called mali essence). (Note: Do not use jasmine oil! It’s not the same thing.)  Not exactly a Thai dish, madeleines are quintessentially French, and in my opinion, the most perfect hybrid of cookie and cake. Plus, they’re beautiful – and if you’re the creative type, they take well to additions like flavorings and chocolate (for all you non-traditional peeps out there!).  They are perfect dipped in a hot cup of tea (jasmine?) or coffee.

If you can’t find jasmine essence, these madeleines would be delicious with rosewater or orange flower water, or barring any other flowery additions, you can simply increase the amount of vanilla extract to 1 1/2 teaspoons. Make sure that your eggs are at room temperature and that you don’t skimp on the time it takes to mix the eggs and the sugar together. Also – standard madeleine pans have molds that are 3 1/4 inches long. (This recipe, as I baked it, made 24 madeleines, filling the molds up 3/4 full, although the original recipe says that it makes 36.) If you only have one madeleine pan, make sure that you allow the pan to cool completely before re-buttering/flouring (or spraying) it.

This recipe is adapted from one in my favorite Thai cookbook – True Thai.

Jasmine madeleines cooling

Ingredients:
4 eggs, at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar (use slightly less if you’re using jasmine syrup)
2 teaspoons finely grated orange peel
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch kosher salt
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon Thai jasmine extract (mali) or 2 teaspoons Thai jasmine syrup or 1 teaspoon rosewater or orange flower water
Additional butter and flour for the madeleine pans, or cooking spray
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting (optional)

Special Equipment: madeleines pans, a rubber spatula

Procedure:

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a small bowl. Set aside.
2. Using a stand or a hand mixer, beat the eggs and the sugar together on medium speed for 12-15 minutes, or until the mixture turns a light lemony yellow color and has thickened considerably.
3. Add the orange peel and mix for 30 seconds more.
4. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the flour-baking powder mixture.
5. Fold in the butter, vanilla, and the flowery essence of your choice. Don’t over mix or your madeleines will be rubbery.
6. Let the batter rest in a cool spot for at least an hour.
7. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375ºF. Brush the madeleine pans with melted butter, dust with flour, and knock out the excess. Or be lazy like me and spray them generously with cooking spray.
8. Spoon the madeleine batter into the prepared pans, filling them 3/4 full.
9. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the madeleines are lightly golden.
10. Cool in pans for 1 minute, then unmold onto wire racks (scalloped pattern-side up) to cool.
11. Dust with confectioners’ sugar, if desired.

Ingredients
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup stone-ground buckwheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

Procedure

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or silpats.
2. Combine the butter, brown sugar, salt, and baking soda in the bowl of a stand mixer (or use a hand mixer). Beat the butter and sugar mixture on medium speed until fluffy (about 3 minutes), scraping down the sides of the bowl if necessary.
3. Add the egg and the vanilla and beat on low until just combined.
4. Add the buckwheat and the all-purpose flour and beat on low until the flours are incorporated.
5. Fold in the chocolate chips. Try not to eat all of the dough.
6. Drop by rounded spoonfuls (I used a #40 ice cream scoop so the cookies would be relatively the same size) onto the prepared cookie sheets, and flatten slightly with your fingers.
7. Bake for 13-15 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through cooking. (It is a little difficult to determine when these cookies are done because the dough is so dark. You’ll notice that the cookies will loose a bit of their sheen and will no longer be tacky to the touch.)
8. Cool on the cookie sheets for 1 minute, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes about 12 large cookies, if you can control yourself with the dough (I couldn’t).