Recipes
Forget-Me-Not Madeleines|Weston Table

Sweet Things

Forget-Me-Not Madeleines
Forget-me-knots blossom in April and May and are a charming poke-your-head-up through the sleepy earth harbinger of spring. Its tiny blue flowers with distinctive yellow centers are easy beginner frosting flowers. Madeleines are simple French cookies that take only minutes to mix up and only a short time in the oven. Partially dipped in high quality white chocolate and finished with the enchanting blue frosting flowers makes for a dress them up cookie perfect for Easter, Mother's Day, or even a baby shower.
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cuisine French
difficulty Moderate
season Spring & Summer
serves 18

INGREDIENTS FOR THE COOKIES

100 grams (7 tablespoons) unsalted butter

2 large eggs, room temperature

100 grams (1/2 cup) granulated sugar

Zest of one lemon

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

100 grams all-purpose flour (3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp), sifted

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 pinch kosher salt

INGREDIENTS FOR THE CHOCOLATE & FROSTING

6 ounces high quality white chocolate such as Callebaut, chopped into very small pieces

454 grams or 1 pound confectioners sugar 

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

250 grams or 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Soft gel paste food coloring (we used royal blue and violet)

18 tiny sugar pearls (for the flower centers)

DIRECTIONS FOR THE COOKIES

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Melt the butter either in your microwave or in a small pot over medium heat. Browning the butter will add a lovely depth of flavor to the cakes but is of course optional. Once melted or browned, pour the butter into a bowl, and allow to cool.
  3. Sift the flour, salt, and baking powder into a bowl then whisk together and set aside.
  4. Add the eggs and sugar to the bowl or your stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, or a large bowl if using an electric hand mixer. Beat on high until the mixture is a light yellow color with a thick silky texture, about 8 to 9 minutes. The beater will leave trails when it is ready. Mix in the vanilla and lemon zest.
  5. Fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture and mix until just combined. Avoid over-mixing the delicate batter.
  6. Drizzle the butter into the batter and gently mix until just combined.
  7. Cover and chill the batter as well as the buttered tins for 1 hour then scoop one tablespoon of batter into each scallop-shaped well.
  8. Bake at 350 F. 8 to 10 minutes, or until light golden brown but the edges are not darkening. Remove from the oven and cool to room temperature.

DIRECTIONS FOR THE CHOCOLATE & AMERICAN BUTTERCREAM

  1. Add the chocolate to a microwavable bowl. Microwave on high for 1 minute. Remove and stir until the chocolate is melted. It may be necessary to heat the chocolate at 15 second intervals until it is completely melted. Remove the chocolate pot and set aside for one minute.
  2. Dip each cookie into the chocolate so that half the cookie is covered front and back. Hold the cookie above the bowl to let excess chocolate drip off. Place the dipped cookies on a wire rack and let set until the chocolate is set, about 20 minutes. Repeat process with each cookie.
  3. Whip the butter and salt for about a minute using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.
  4. Sift 1/3 of the confectioners sugar into the butter, beat on low until incorporated. Scrape the bowl down and repeat the process until all of the sugar is incorporated.
  5. Continue mixing on low and add a tablespoon of the cream and the vanilla. Beat until you have an even, fluffy consistency. Add more cream as necessary to achieve the consistency desired.
  6. Use a skewer to add the gel paste coloring to the buttercream. When the frosting is the color desired (see kitchen notes below), transfer to a piping bag fitted with tip 104 to pipe a forget-me-not-flower onto the center of each chocolate covered madeleine. Finish with a candy sugar pearl.
  7. Store in an air-tight container for up to 3 days.

Kitchen Notes

We highly recommend the AmeriColor soft gel pastes to color buttercream. They have an extraordinary color selection and it lasts for years so long as the tops are secured. To make the delicate blue flowers, we mixed only a tiny dot of royal blue and a tiny dot of violet into the white frosting. It is easy to add more and impossible to lighten without an extreme addition of more frosting. I suggest starting with 1/2 cup of frosting in a separate bowl and use a skewer to dot it with the gel coloring--mix away adding more white frosting to bring it up to the color desired. Experiment away! Tiny pink flowers would also be lovely. We use Callebaut white chocolate, however, any high quality white chocolate (not chocolate chips) will work-small pieces insure even melting.
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