Pandan Madeleines
These Pandan Madeleines are the Southeast Asian spin on the French madeleines. They are soft, moist, light, buttery inside with slightly crisped edges. Get all the tips and tricks below on how to make them perfectly every time!
These French little treats are made with a twist. The batter is infused with pandan, which gives the buttery-rich sponge cake sweet tropical notes in each bite. These Pandan Madeleines are tiny little morsels of perfection – literally two bites and it’s gone. They are best enjoyed as a dessert or with a cup of tea for afternoon tea.
What Are Madeleines?
Madeleines are small, bite-sized French sponge cakes that are baked in a specific shell-shaped mold. They have a light, buttery texture with crispy edges and that signature hump on the back.
Due to their small size, many call them cookies (predominantly in America) but others believe them to be small cakes. I guess you can call them what you want, but in my mind, they are cakes, not cookies!
What Is Pandan?
Pandan, known as the ‘vanilla of the East’, is a staple herb in Southeast Asian cuisines. The leaves can be used to infuse their fragrance to foods or as a natural green coloring in desserts.
Pandan is not eaten straight, but rather used to flavor or impart aromatic fragrance to foods. Whole pandan leaves can be boiled with other ingredients or they are used to wrap foods to impart them with an aromatic note. They are also commonly pulverized to produce pandan extract.
Ingredients You Need
- Butter – Use the best quality butter that you can afford. Go for European butter if you can as the water content is much lower.
- Eggs – The eggs must be at room temperature so they blend easily with other ingredients.
- Castor sugar – You can also replace it with granulated sugar. I used castor sugar because it will get dissolved quicker than granulated sugar.
- Cake flour – Cake flour is ideal for baked goods with a tender texture due to its low gluten content. You can also use all-purpose flour to substitute cake flour.
- Baking powder – It is an ingredient to help encourage the madeleine’s hump to form.
- Pandan paste – A few drops of pandan paste will add bright green color, mild pandan flavor, and sweet aroma to your baked goods.
How to Make Pandan Madeleines
- Whisk together the eggs and castor sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Sift in the cake flour and baking powder. Whisk until just combined. Add melted butter and pandan paste. Whisk until well incorporated.
- Chill the batter for at least 1 hour or overnight. When ready to bake, remove the batter from the fridge and use a spatula to loosen the batter.
- Transfer the batter into a piping bag and pipe the batter into the greased madeleine molds.
- Bake and remove the madeleines immediately from the pan. Cool completely.
Secrets of Madeleine Humps
The madeleine hump or bump is a signature of the authentic madeleine pastry. Let’s find out what makes iconic French cakes rise and how to get the perfect humpy madeleines.
- Don’t overmix the batter – When combining the ingredients, be careful not to overmix the batter. Overmixing can lead to dense madeleines. Stop mixing as soon as the ingredients are just combined.
- Madeleine pan material – The curved cavities of the madeleine pan will facilitate the formation of a hump. Use metal molds over silicone ones. Metal molds conduct heat much better and produce crisped edges.
- Chill the batter – Maintaining a contrast of temperatures is crucial in making those madeleine bumps. Because the oven is hot the top of the batter bakes and sets quickly, but because the batter itself and the tin was chilled, it takes a little longer for the bottom to bake and this means there is more batter that can push up and cause a big bolder hump. You should chill the batter for at least 1 hour or even better 24 hours.
- Don’t overfill the molds – You should fill them about 80-90% full for the best result. If you do it will spill over the sides of the mold and create an unwanted crips edge and it will lessen the amount of hump.
- Bake immediately – Once the batter is ready and the molds are filled, place them in the preheated oven immediately. Avoid leaving the batter sitting for too long before baking.
- Oven temperature – Thermal shock is created between the temperature of the cold batter and the oven’s heat. The oven should be as hot as possible without overbrowning your madeleines. You’ll have trouble getting a large hump if the oven temperature is too low.
How to Serve Pandan Madeleines
Madeleines are best served warm, straight from the oven. Being so small in size, they lose their moisture quickly so it’s not suggested to make them ahead of time. You can make the batter ahead of time, then bake off fresh batches as needed. They are best enjoyed with a cup of tea.
Pandan Madeleines
Ingredients
- 7 tbsp (100 gr) unsalted butter, melted
- 2 eggs
- 7 tbsp (90 gr) castor sugar
- 13 tbsp (100 gr) cake flour
- 1 tsp (4 gr) baking powder
- Pandan paste
Instructions
- Make batter – Whisk eggs and castor sugar lightly for 3-4 minutes or until the sugar is dissolved. Sift in cake flour and baking powder. Whisk until just combined. Add melted butter and pandan paste. Whisk until well incorporated.
- Chill batter – Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill the dough for at least 1 hour or overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 400F/200°C when you are ready to bake.
- Grease pan – Grease a non-stick madeleine pan with butter. If you are not using a non-stick pan, grease the pan with butter and dust the wells with flour lightly.
- Fill the molds – Remove the batter from the fridge. Using a spatula, mix to loosen the batter and remove the air bubbles. Transfer the batter into a piping bag and pipe the batter into the molds until 80-90% full. You can also alternatively spoon the batter into the molds.
- Bake – Place the filled madeleine pan into the preheated oven and immediately reduce the oven temperature to 350F/180°C. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until they have risen and the edges are golden brown
- Cool – Remove madeleines from the pan immediately. Cool them completely before glazing them.
One of the best madeleine recipe I found!