Elegant Madeleines
If you’ve never had them, madeleines are little French butter cakes. They are perfect for so many occasions – bridal showers, Easter brunch, Mother’s Day or your coffee in the morning on a random Tuesday.
Today, I thought I would share one of my favourite recipes with you. I personally love madeleines. These are so easy to make (I mean, less than 15 minutes prep time!) and they look so elegant, they are sure to impress your guests.
If you’ve never had them, madeleines are little French butter cakes. They are perfect for so many occasions – bridal showers, Easter brunch, Mother’s Day or your coffee in the morning on a random Tuesday.
Seriously though, these little bite-sized cakes look so pretty on a dessert table.
I personally like to add cinnamon to this recipe because I will eat almost anything if it has cinnamon in it! (Except carrot cake – stop trying to put vegetables in my dessert!!)
The last time I made them, the Mister and I finished the entire batch in one day!! They are so good, you just can’t stop yourself from eating them! Plus I usually make the mini madeleines so it feels like you only had two bites, and so you reach for another. And another…. Before you know it, the entire batch is gone!
I’ve tried various ways of dressing them up by dipping them in chocolate or dusting them with cinnamon sugar - even though they are so pretty on its own.
You can get some really good deals on the pans at places like Winners, Marshal’s and even <Kitchen Stuff Plus http://www.kitchenstuffplus.com/trudeau-structure-silcone-madeleine-pan-fuchsia-grey>. I personally bought the mini pans from Amazon because I feel like eating 20 mini madeleines are not as bad as 10 full sized madeleines. (Yes, my logic is flawed. No, I don’t care).
Here is the recipe that I like to use.
Elegant Madeleines
Makes: 24 madeleines
Prep time:
Cook time:
- 2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk
- 2/3 cups sugar
- 2/3 cups flour
- 2/3 cups softened butter
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease the madeleine pan with butter.
- Using an electronic hand beater, beat the eggs and sugar until thick and foamy. Add nutmeg and cinnamon into the egg mixture and blend well. Fold in the flour and use a spatula to mix well. Fold in the softened butter and blend.
- Transfer the batter into the madeleine pan and fill about 3/4 of the way. Bake for 10 minutes or until they turn light golden brown.
- Remove the madeleine pan from the oven and let cool on a cooling rack.
Lemon Lavender Shortbread Cookies
When life gives you lemons….
Typically on dessert menus I either go for something rich and chocolaty, or something bright and fruity. I have always had a weakness for desserts with a citrus note to it – lemon meringue, key lime pie…. So it is no surprise that I fell in love with these lemon lavender shortbread cookies.
tangy and floral lemon lavender shortbread cookies
When life gives you lemons….
when life gives you lemons
Typically on dessert menus I either go for something rich and chocolaty, or something bright and fruity. I have always had a weakness for desserts with a citrus note to it – lemon meringue, key lime pie…. So it is no surprise that I fell in love with these lemon lavender shortbread cookies.
These shortbread cookies are perfect for those spring and summer events.
The lively citrus notes go so well with the hint of floral from the lavender buds.
bright and floral lemon lavender shortbread cookies
the perfect dessert for spring and summer events
It is important to use culinary lavender and not the type that you would typically see in in flower shops – you don’t want to be eating all of those pesticides and other chemicals. You can typically find culinary lavender in specialty grocery stores. I have also come across some at my local Winners, Marshals and some Bulk Barns.
I have been dying to try a recipe with lavender since I picked some up at the St. Lawrence Market here in Toronto. The lavender is not overwhelming. You just get a hint of the floral taste afterwards.
These cookies are very rich and delicate and pair so nicely with tea. If you’re having a tea party or a shower this year, this is definitely the dessert you are looking for.
These pretty and absolutely delicious cookies are bound to impress your guests!
Lemon Lavender Shortbread Cookies
These bright shortbread cookies are perfect for spring and summer events
Makes: 3 dozen
Prep time:
Cook time:
- 2 ½ cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 cups butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Zest from 1 ½ lemons
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon lavender buds
- Pre-heat oven to 325
- Cream butter, sugar, vanilla, lemon zest, lemon juice on the medium setting using a hand mixer
- Add the egg and continue to mix
- Slowly add the flour, baking powder and lavender and mix until well combined
- Drop a teaspoon sized of the batter on to a cookie sheet and lightly flatten a bit.
- Garnish with a few lavender buds
- Bake for 12 minutes or until lightly golden
Easy Sugar Cookies
If you follow me on Instagram, you already know that I make a lot of sugar cookies - for every season.
If you follow me on Instagram, you already know that I make a lot of sugar cookies - for every season. To the point now, where if I don’t, my nieces and nephews get mad at me, and they aren’t afraid to voice their frustration.
It started with my niece’s first birthday. Then Christmas. Then more birthdays. They’ve now asked me to make it for every occasion possible – including Thanksgiving. (Did the pilgrims have sugar cookies? …did they have a turkey??)
I do decorate the cookies in their choice of theme for their birthday using royal icing. And quite frankly, I think they just love the cookies for the sugar rush. (we all need to get our fix somehow).
I have included my personal favorite recipe below but you could use a packaged mix. If you are using cookie cutters, you will need to make the packaged dough a bit drier so that it holds its cutout shape when you bake it. You can add a bit more flour and reduce the amount of liquid that the recipe calls for. For example, most recipes call for 3 cups of butter and I use at least half that. (I have to make up for the ton of sugar I use to decorate the cookies with so this is about as healthy as it's going to get!)
Once the dough is made, I leave it to sit in the fridge for at least an hour. Chilling the dough helps when you roll out the dough and keep the shape of the cutters you are using.
Try to leave some space between each cookie when placing it on the cookie sheet as the cookies expand a bit when baking. I can't tell you the number of times I took the cookies out of the oven only to see them morph together!
Once out of the oven, if the cookies are touching a bit, you can separate them using a butter knife as soon as they come out of the oven and are still soft. Once the cookies have cooled, separating them may be more difficult.
Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe
Makes: approximately 30 cookies (depending on the size of your cookie cutters)
Cook time:
- 1 ½ cups of softened butter
- 1 cup of white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 onion (finely chopped)
- 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- pinch of salt
- Instruction 1 In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. /li>
- Instruction 2 Beat in eggs and vanilla.
- Instruction 3 Mix in dry ingredients - flour, baking powder and salt.
- Instruction 4 Cover and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
- Instruction 5 Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Instruction 6 Roll out dough (I do mine in batches!) to about 1/2 or 1/4 inch thick and cut our cookies.
- Instruction 7 Place on baking pan 1 inch apart on an ungreased baking pan.
- Instruction 8 Bake for approximately 8 minutes or until golden.