Chocolate & Nut Dipped Honey Madeleines with Strawberry Flavour Middle

Madeleines, the cake of the gods and just to make them extra, I’ve added a strawberry flavour dough to the middle and drizzled a little dark chocolate over one of the edges before adding a few chopped nuts, just to finish off.

 Little French fancies, which should have a small mound on one side and the expected fluted pattern from the madeleine tin on the other, are really good vessels for flavour.

 So, for this version, I’ve added a couple of tablespoons of strawberry fruit powder to a small amount of the batter before adding it to the centre of the original batter, once they’re in the prepared tin.

 Using strawberry powder rather than fresh strawberries or strawberry coulis means I’m not adding extra liquid to the batter, and any extra liquid to a tried and tested recipe gives it the potential to flood the tin or even split.

 Another benefit of using a fruit powder?

I can use whichever flavour of powder I have available and fancy eating, on any given day (at the moment I think I have blackberry, strawberry and pineapple powders in my cupboard) so, once again, lots of options to adapt this recipe to suit your taste, or my ever changing need for baking something new!

 Go on, give it a go and enjoy your sweet life!

Check out that strawberry flavoured filling

 What You Need

• 100g Plain Flour – Extra flour to prepare tin

• 100g Castor Sugar

• 100g Melted Butter – Extra butter to prepare tin

• 2 eggs- Separated

• 2 Tbsp Runny Honey

• 1 Tsp Vanilla

• 2 Tbsp Strawberry Fruit Powder

• Icing Sugar to Dust

Adding the fruit powder stops the dough becoming too wet.

 Topping

•  100g Dark Chocolate – Broken into pieces

• 100g Chopped Nuts – See Tip Box

 How It’s Done

• Heat oven to 180c

• Prepare the Madeleine tin by buttering and flouring the inside

• Mix the flour and sugar together

• In a separate bowl, mix together the egg yolks, honey, melted butter and vanilla and fold the wet mixture into the flour mixture. - See Tip Box

• In a very clean and grease free bowl, whisk the egg whites until you are able to hold the bowl over your head without them falling out.

• Once the egg whites are ready, in three batches, fold the whites into the egg and flour mixture. - See Tip Box

• Take out 4 Tbsp of the mixture, into a separate small bowl

• Add the 2 Tbsp of the strawberry fruit powder to the small bowl and mix really well

• Divide the original mixture between the tins

Add a strip of the strawberry dough down the centre of the original dough

• Use a small spoon to add a strip of the strawberry flavoured batter to the centre of the original mixture in the tin

• Place the tin into the hot oven to cook for around 12 minutes until they are light, have risen and are golden brown.

• Let the madeleines cool in the tin for around 10 minutes then remove and cool on a cool rack.

A strip of melted chocolate under those chopped nuts

 Topping

•  Place the pieces of chocolate into a microwavable bowl and microwave for 1 minute

• Give it a stir

• Back into the microwave, for 30 seconds, stir again

• Repeat this process until most of the chocolate has melted

• Mix again letting the heat of the already melted chocolate, melts the remaining pieces

• Let it sit for 5 minutes before using

• Use a small spoon to spoon some of the melted chocolate along the left-hand top edge of the madeleine

• While the chocolate is still wet, dip the chocolate into the chopped nuts before letting them rest, on a cooling tray, until the chocolate is cold and the chocolate has set.

• Dust with icing sugar to serve.

Light and airy sponge with a strawberry centre

 Tip Box

• Egg Whites - When whisking the egg whites, there are a few things to remember.

1) Make sure none of the yolk gets into the bowl

2) The bowl has to be very clean, so make sure the bowl is grease free otherwise there will be no aerated whites.

• Folding in - 1) Folding in is all about not taking the air out rather than putting air in.

2) Using a large metal spoon means that there are less times needed to fold the mixture in, so leaving the air in the mixture.

3) Don’t over mix the mixture, once again, it’s about keeping the air in and not letting the gluten become to activated which would make the madeleines tough.

• Nuts – One again I used what I had in my pantry and that happened to be a pack of mixed chopped nuts, but as always, use what you have, what you can get your hands on or even your favourite. Chop the nuts into small pieces, small enough to be easily

Dusting with lots of icing sugar before serving