If you love anything Matcha as much as my kids do, you will love this cake. Or cookie. Is it a cake or a cookie? As most will agree, Madeleines are petite size French butter cakes but because of their size, they are often referred to as cookies. However you wish to call them, they are just as delicious and addicting. Surely, one Madeleine is never enough.
This Madeleine is flavored with Matcha, but I opted to keep the base flavor of butter and lemon, and tease the palate with hints and notes of Matcha. If you wish to truly highlight the flavor of Matcha, you may choose to omit the lemon zest when making the batter. Dusting the Madeleines with Matcha powder is also an option for a more pronounced Matcha flavor.
Of course, this is made with sourdough discard. My list of recipes of sourdough discard keeps growing!
Just the right height of the signature Madeleine 'hump.'
INGREDIENTS:
Base---
115 grams all-purpose flour
150 grams sourdough discard
3 grams baking powder
3 grams salt
230 grams baker’s sugar
164 grams eggs (approximately 3 eggs)
Seeds of one vanilla bean or 3 grams vanilla extract
Zest of one lemon
227 grams unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
Matcha:
You may opt to omit lemon zest. But I personally prefer to keep the base flavor or the Madeleines and add a note or hint of Matcha flavor.
Add 5 to 6 teaspoons of Matcha powder (or more, depending on your preference), sifted, to the dry ingredients.
INSTRUCTIONS:
In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In another bowl, using a stand mixer with a whisk attachment beat the eggs, sugar, vanilla seeds (or vanilla extract), and lemon zest. About five minutes.
Using a whisk, fold in the sourdough discard. Make sure to fully combine, with no lumps in the mixture.
Fold in the dry ingredients making sure ingredients are fully incorporated.
Next, fold in the melted butter, a third at a time. Do not over mix. You would want to maintain the air bubbles in the mixture.
Keep the batter in the fridge for about 30 minutes, or until oven is ready.
Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Prepare your Madeleine pan--- melt some butter and lightly grease each cavity of the pan.
Lightly dust some flour on each cavity; remove excess flour by tapping the pan on the counter or kitchen sink.
Take the batter out of the fridge. Scoop about a tablespoon and a half of the batter into each cavity of the pan. Do not over-fill.
Bake for 10 minutes, or until sides are light golden brown in color and/or when the tops of the Madeleines spring back when lightly pressed with your finger.
Transfer Madeleines on a wire rack to cool completely.
Once cool, you can dust with confectioner’s sugar, or coat with melted chocolate.
If you are coating the Madeleines with melted chocolate, let the coated Madeleines cool and rest on parchment paper, not on a wire rack as this will create marks on the Madeleines.
Note: Using USA-Pan brand Madeleine pans, I did not have to dust each cavity of the pan with flour. Just very minimally brushed each cavity with butter and the Madeleines slid off beautifully after baking.