Shell shaped spongy cakes infused with lemon and almond flavors. This traditional French cookie just got so much better.

For full recipe see below!

Are they cookies or cakes? Who knows? And, honestly, who really cares?

This version of a traditional French cookie is so delicious that I must warn you that at least one third of the batch will be eaten within the first hour of being out of the oven… I may speak from experience.

You know that time when you’ve forgotten that you’re having company over? What do you do? You need to impress but don’t have hours to stand in the kitchen, right? The obvious answer is for you to run over to the bakery, pick up a box of cookies, throw them on a platter, and forget to mention where they came from!

I don’t know what your experience is with these cookies, but the ones I find at the store or at bakeries have always been on the shelf too long, and they have dried out and lost their sponginess.

The spongy texture of these cookies makes them uber light. I love this recipe in particular because the almond extract and lemon zest add a unique flavor that you can’t get in most bakery cookies. If you aren’t a fan of lemon, then you can omit the zest. The same goes for the almond extract but you may want to replace it with vanilla. I know most people don’t have almond extract lying around the house, but you can easily find it at the grocery store and it adds a ton of flavor to the cookies.

These would be great served with tea or coffee or on an after dinner cookie tray.

Let’s talk equipment. The only downside to these spong-ilicious cookies is that they require a special pan. I know that feeling you’re having right now. You’ve found a fabulous recipe, and you run into the kitchen to start only to discover that your kitchen has a pan-shaped hole in its inventory. I know it’s an investment, but it’s one I suggest you make because this recipe is so simple and is super impressive that you’ll want to make these for any bakesale, dinner party, brunch, etc.

William-Sonoma has a couple of pans. Just beware that for the mini madeleine pan you’ll have to adjust the bake time. I would also suggest getting nonstick because it will make your life tremendously easier when you have to dump the cookies out of the pan. I bought my pan in the kitchen section at Ace Hardware, but I’m not sure if all Ace Hardware stores have them. You can also find them at a Bed, Bath, and Beyond or a Target. They are a fairly common pan, so you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding one.

So to start your scrumptious madeleines, grease and flour your madeleine pans. I will warn you that this is about twelve times messier than flouring a regular cake pan because there are 12 different bays. Therefore, the mess is proportional to the number of bays.

If you have never floured a pan before, I’ll fill you in! Start by generously spraying or buttering each bay. After spraying the pan, I like to take a paper towel and rub the oil around to make sure every crevice is greased well. Then dump a few tablespoons of flour on the pan and shake it around and bang the pan against the heel of your hand to get the flour to move around. Use extra flour if needed. The flour will stick to the oil and create a layer of flour that will make it a lot easier to get the cookies out. Shake the pan over the garbage can to get the excess flour out. If you leave the excess in your pan, the cookies will be very dry.

Don’t be fooled by the picture, there was a much bigger mess…I may have wiped the counter and the pan before taking the second picture.

Next melt 4 tablespoons of butter and set aside to cool while you get the rest of your ingredients together.

Crack two eggs into an electric mixer bowl. Add the sugar and salt. Beat on medium-high speed with a whisk attachment for about 5-8 minutes until the mixture looks light and foamy. You could also do this step by hand with a whisk, but it will take a little longer and you will be able to forgo the gym for the next week. Next mix in your vanilla and almond extract.

Remove the bowl from the mixer. By using a whisk you have created a lot of air. Since this recipe does not have any leavening agents (baking powder or baking soda) the air is what makes your madeleines light and fluffy. This is why you are going to gently fold in the rest of the ingredients by hand.

Measure half a cup of all-purpose flour and sift it directly into the batter in three increments, lightly fold in the flour after each increment. Be gentle in folding in the flour. The significance of the word “folding” in a recipe is to let you know that air is important to the batter, and if you just stir normally you will deflate your batter.

Next fold in your lemon zest and half of the butter until consistent. Then fold in the rest of the butter.

Spoon your batter into the greased madeleine pan. Each bay will be nearly full.

Bake the madeleines at 350°F if you have a dark nonstick pan or at 375°F if you have a regular pan. Mine took about 9 minutes to bake, but I like them to be pale on the outside. I would suggest anywhere from 8 to 11 minutes depending on how dark you like the outside of the cookie to be. They are done when you gently press in the middle and it springs back.

When they are done remove them from the oven and dump them onto a wire rack immediately. If they stick, use your fingers to help loosen them up.

Now the original recipe says to let them cool for at least ten minutes but we all know that simply won’t happen. These cookies are by far the tastiest right out of the oven, so I recommend devouring them immediately. If you want to dust them with powdered sugar you will need to wait a little bit (about 15 minutes) because if they are hot they will just absorb all of the sugar.

…and voilà, delicious, traditional French cookies!

Doubling the Recipe. If you need more than twelve madeleines, then unfortunately you either need to buy a second pan or start the batter completely over after the first batch is done baking. You cannot bake one dozen, remove them, and then fill up the pan with the old batter again because in that time your batter will have deflated and your cookies will be less spongy and more dense.

Shelf life. These cookies are best right out of the oven, so I’ve never really had a problem with how long they last, but they do tend to dry out quickly. Store them in an air-tight container, and they will still be good a few days later, but you will notice that the non-shell side will get stickier and that the middle will get drier. However, I promise you that it won’t be an issue because I actually had to save one to see how long they lasted.

Source: William-Sonoma