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Orange Madeleines

Gluten Free

Adapted from Laurent Dran by My Little Blue Heron

These are lovely little cakes, easy to put together, and you can leave the batter in the fridge for a day or two and bake on demand. 

Laurent Dran is my GF guroux. C’est vrai, evolved from its nascent stage, gluten free baking has grown into .. young adulthood. So, in gf context, these are fantastique, parfait, even magnifique!

These little pillows are seriously beautiful, truly delicious and will delight you and yours.

Dran’s recipe calls for a final dip in dark chocolate, melted in a bain marie (water bath/double boiler).. or, if you’re adept at nuking chocolate, melt it in your microwave. In the microwave, do take care to melt it at a low power, little by little, stirring often. Allow time for the chocolate to set up before serving or storing. BHK truc: for a pretty chocolate sheen, add a tiny bit of flavorless oil to the melted chocolate. 

I don’t love chocolate (really), and I like to test and taste without the drape or what I consider the mask of chocolate, which definitely hides shortcomings. These cookies are delicious sans chocolate. They’ll hold for a day in an airtight container. If you need to prepare in advance, try the fridge or freeze them.

What’s interesting to me is that despite the absence of butter, there’s a buttery quality to these little cakes. There are eggs, so they’re not vegan. I haven’t tried them using egg substitute. The recipe has no gum binders and if you have a well-stocked gf pantry, it requires no unusual ingredients. What you may need to buy is orange blossom flower water. This is available in specialty markets, middle eastern markets and online. It’s a lovely and fragrant flavoring and it's always fun to have a new flavor in your pantry!

Essential to this recipe: The batter must rest in the fridge for at least two hours prior to baking.

I love my silicone molds. I gave my tins to my nephew. The best ones are from France. They’re made by Lekue. I was lucky to snag their mini madeleine molds. Larger “regular” sized ones are available. 

Ingredients are listed in grams. You’ll need a kitchen scale. If you don’t have one, get one. They’re inexpensive and essential. Here’s a very inexpensive one you can buy on Amazon in the U.S.

I love the mini madeleines. Mini or full-sized, these will be a beautiful addition to your dessert plate, a lovely accompaniment to fruit, or a perfect snack with coffee or tea.

I’m mad for madeleines and hope you’ll be too. You’ll never know they’re gluten free. 

peace and love,

jane

Gluten Free Orange Madeleines

Equipment: Silicone or conventional madeleine tins, electric stand or hand mixer

Ingredients: 

  🟠150 g rice flour (I love Authentic or Bob’s Red Mill)

  🟠70 g potato starch

  🟠170 g 10X (powdered sugar)

  🟠100 g flavorless oil (canola or sunflower)

  🟠2 tsp. baking powder

  🟠Generous pinch of salt

  🟠4 eggs, size large, at room temperature

  🟠1 orange, zested (no pith!), organic if possible

  🟠1 tsp. orange blossom flower water

  🟠For optional chocolate glaze: 100 g 70% dark chocolate

Procedure:

Mise en place: 

In a medium/large bowl, weigh rice flour, then tare. Add potato starch, baking powder and salt. Whisk together and set aside.

Zest orange, taking care to not include the white pith (it’s bitter.) I like to use a Microplane Zester, but a box grater works well, too.

Weigh oil.

Have orange blossom flower water and a tsp. close by the mixer.

In a separate small bowl, weigh 10X (powdered) sugar.

Crack eggs, one at a time and ready them for pouring into batter. No need to mix them.

Prepare the batter:

In the bowl of a stand mixer (or if using a hand mixer, in another separate bowl), beat together the 10X sugar and the eggs until well combined and light in color. 

Add, little by little, the dry ingredients mixture, oil, orange zest and orange blossom flower water and mix until well incorporated.

Essential step: Transfer to a bowl, cover the bowl and put in fridge for at least two hours.

Preheat oven to 375º F. (Dran calls for a much hotter oven, but I had better control and success at a lower temperature. You can go up to 425º if you want to fool around.)

If you’re using conventional madeleine molds, brush with oil. Silicone molds need no coating of fat. I worked both with and without oil, and preferred without. 

Fill molds with batter and bake in center of preheated oven for 6-9 minutes, depending on your molds and your oven. 

Remove from oven, cool enough to remove from molds and transfer to racks to cool completely. 

If dipping in chocolate, wait until cookies are cooled. Dip and cool on racks until chocolate is set. 

Batter can be left in fridge for a day or two, covered well, and baked on demand.

These are best eaten the same day. May be stored in an airtight container for a day. Baked madeleines (not dipped in chocolate) may be frozen.