I had a disaster making ordinary-sized madeleines a few years ago from David Leibovitz’s recipe. I over-baked one batch and under-baked the other. The lemon glaze soaked in and made them all soggy and it was a major logistical challenge to fit the madeleine tin in my mum’s freezer which is always, as mine is too, full to over-flowing.

And yet, in spite of the disasters and the fact that madeleines aren’t even my favourite thing, I couldn’t resist buying this mini madeleine tin when I saw it (although it turned out that I bought 2 stuck together and I have no idea whether I paid for 2 or just 1). I thought perhaps I’d make pretty little biscuits in it.

Sometimes, you just need to get the thing you’re drawn to, and let the rest play out (or at least that’s how I’m going to justify my impulse-purchasing of seemingly useless but beautiful, items).

My mother-in-law bought me Dominique Ansel’s cook book for my birthday. I was a little intimidated at first as he has some very strong views about what is and isn’t acceptable when it comes to food and baking. But it’s a fascinating book to read and one of the first recipes in his book is for, not just madeleines, but mini madeleines. Serendipitous.

Then we spent a wonderful sunny, warm spring weekend down in Marseille at my brother-in-law’s mother-in-law’s and she made a splendid batch of madeleines. It was very sweet when my daughter happily ate one (as opposed to spitting it out or throwing it on the floor, which is the fate of most foods these days) but then she came back for another, and (to my horror) another, and another.

I couldn’t deny that these were a favourite of hers and I felt duty-bound to master the recipe.

I mostly followed Dominique Ansel’s recipe, although I used extra butter to grease the mould and worked out spoon-measures for salt and baking powder as my digital scales are pretty unreliable when it comes to 1g of salt. I also found it easier to spoon the mixture into the moulds, instead of using a piping bag. After trying them ‘nature’ (the only way I’m going to let my daughter have them), I felt they were lacking something. That something is a lemon glaze, and David Leibovitz’s worked very nicely. The added bonus is that the glaze seals the madeleines and keeps their crazy-light just-been-baked texture for longer.

Where I must concur with Dominique and David, is that these do change with time and are best shortly after they’ve been baked. The glaze helps the freshness stretch to the following day but they are still delicious even 2 or 3 days later. A bit like my cannelés recipe here the batter keeps for 3 days in the fridge so you can at least be more flexible with when you decide to bake them.

Melt-in-the-mouth mini madeleines with lemon glaze

Adapted from Dominique Ansel’s Mini madeleine recipe and David Leibovitz’s Humpy madeleines recipe (link here: https://www.davidlebovitz.com/humpy-madeleine/ )

Makes 80-100 mini madeleines

Ingredients

Mini madeleines

• 115g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing the tin/s
• 15g caster sugar (cassonade, if you’re shopping in a French shop)
• 15g honey
• 100g white sugar (sucre en poudre)
• 1/2 tsp sea salt flakes
• 120g plain flour, sieved
• 1 tsp baking powder (levure chimique)
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• zest of half a lemon
• zest of half an orange

Lemon glaze

• 150g icing sugar (sucre glace)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp water

Method

Day before

Melt the butter with the caster sugar and honey in a small saucepan.

Mix together the sugar, salt, flour and baking powder in a bowl and make a well in the middle.

Add one egg at a time and incorporate into the flour before adding the next (you won’t be able to complete combine after the first or second- there will be some flour left around the edges)

Then add the warm butter-sugar-honey mixture and mix in carefully before adding the citrus zests.

Cover with clingfilm on the surface of the batter, to stop it forming a skin and pop it in the fridge overnight.

Day of

Heat your oven to 180°C and grease your mini madeleine tin/s with melted butter.

Use a teaspoon to fill each mould about 3/4 full.

Bake for about 2 and a half to 3 minutes, until the middles have risen into little mounds, then rotate the tins 180° and continue to bake for another 3 to 4 minutes until the madeleines are tinged golden brown at the edges.

Have a cooling rack ready and as soon as the tin comes out of the oven, bang the cover on the work surface to pop the baked madeleines out of their moulds.

If you’re having these plain or with just a dusting of icing sugar, tuck in as soon as they have cooled a little.

If you want to glaze them, wait until the cakes are cold, then mix the icing sugar, lemon juice and water and dip each one in. I recommend covering them completely and using your fingers to remove the excess before popping them on a baking sheet for the glaze to set.

Keep them in an air-tight container to prolong the freshness as much as possible.