Do we have any bakers out there?
I love Madelines. I used to always buy them at Trader Joe's in Phoenix, but they stopped carrying them. A woman there suggested I buy them in bulk at World Market, but I (A) don't want larger madelines, and (II) don't want them in bulk.
So I bought a gorgeous medeline pan from Williams-Sonoma. I found a great recipe from Food Network, and it works quite well for full batches. But a full batch is 40some small cakes, far too many for my wife and I, so last weekend I halved the recipe.
And it failed.
Here's the full recipe, in short:
4 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon unsalted butter, at room temperature plus 1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
2 teaspoons plus 1 cup bleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon orange zest, finely minced
I used a lemon instead of an orange for the zest, but since I'm just grating the rind for the skin and oil, I don't think that would make a significant difference.
The failure was that instead of getting a nice soft small cake, the cakes fell and I ended up with crisps. They still tasted quite good. My wife noticed one difference: larger bubbles in the crisps than you'd see in a proper madeline. She thinks that half a teaspoon of baking powder was too much and that with the lower mass of the mix itself, that I should try a third or quarter teaspoon. I was leaning towards half a teaspoon was too little and I should use two thirds, though I'm leaning towards her observation. Unfortunately I won't be doing any baking today, maybe some evening next week or on to next weekend.
I was wondering if any experienced bakers out there might have an observation?
So I bought a gorgeous medeline pan from Williams-Sonoma. I found a great recipe from Food Network, and it works quite well for full batches. But a full batch is 40some small cakes, far too many for my wife and I, so last weekend I halved the recipe.
And it failed.
Here's the full recipe, in short:
4 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon unsalted butter, at room temperature plus 1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
2 teaspoons plus 1 cup bleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon orange zest, finely minced
I used a lemon instead of an orange for the zest, but since I'm just grating the rind for the skin and oil, I don't think that would make a significant difference.
The failure was that instead of getting a nice soft small cake, the cakes fell and I ended up with crisps. They still tasted quite good. My wife noticed one difference: larger bubbles in the crisps than you'd see in a proper madeline. She thinks that half a teaspoon of baking powder was too much and that with the lower mass of the mix itself, that I should try a third or quarter teaspoon. I was leaning towards half a teaspoon was too little and I should use two thirds, though I'm leaning towards her observation. Unfortunately I won't be doing any baking today, maybe some evening next week or on to next weekend.
I was wondering if any experienced bakers out there might have an observation?