Would you look at these lovely humpbacked White Chocolate & Pumpkin Spice Madeleines?
I absolutely adore madeleines, so light and delicate and delicious. Much as my family would have preferred me to leave the entire batch plain (sometimes they’re a collective culinary snooze fest), I had a hankering for something pumpkin spice! Which is honestly rather strange for me because I’m not generally a pumpkin spice enthusiast.
But as we all know, you always want what you can’t get and since pumpkin spice is virtually unheard of in Germany, of course I wanted some as soon as I saw the first leaf turn orange. So I just made my own (super easy, btw!), married it to some white chocolate, dunked those Madeleines in, sprinkled on some extra spice and lemon zest and boy, am I glad I rolled with my cravings. Yum-o! Buried my face in a huge cup of Earl Grey and had about (I lost count!) five of these beauts. What a perfect fall afternoon treat!
xoxo Donata
Ingredients
Makes abut 28 madeleines
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
Grated zest of 1 lemon plus 2 tbsp more as garnish
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature, plus more for greasing forms
7 oz (200 g) white chocolate
2 tsp pumpkin spice (if making your own, see recipe below) plus a few pinches more for decoration
Preparation
Sieve the flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
With an electric mixer, beat the eggs, sugar and lemon zest until light yellow and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
Gently fold in the dry ingredients with a whisk. Add the melted butter and whisk in gently. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 400 F(200 C). Butter two madeleine pans (There are usually 12 madeleine cavities per pan).
Once the dough has chilled, fill each cavity 3/4 of the way with batter. It may look like it's not enough, but do not overfill, otherwise the madeleines won’t have their beautiful shape!
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until the madeleines are lightly golden brown.
Let rest for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan and let cool completely on a wire rack.
Repeat with the remaining batter.
While waiting for the madeleines to cool, melt your white chocolate in a water bath over medium-high heat. Once melted, add the pumpkin spice and mix thoroughly. Turn off the heat and leave the pot in the water bath until the madeleines have completely cooled off.
When ready to dip the madeleines, prepare a wire rack. Tip the pot you melted the white chocolate in slightly to the side, so you have a nice deep well to dip the madeleines in. Dip them into the chocolate so that they are covered half way and place on a wire rack to drip off any excess. While the chocolate is still wet, sprinkle on a pinch more pumpkin spice and some lemon zest. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to set. Bring to room temperature before serving.
You can keep the madeleines in an airtight container at room temperature for a few days.
Homemade Pumpkin Spice
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/8 tsp ground cardamom
Mix all the ingredients together until combined. Store in an airtight container.
