Date madeleines

Madeleines are a regular treat on this blog and I’ve already baked them in several different flavors – all of them delicious, by the way – but when I saw Annie Bell’s recipe for date madeleines I was very intrigued: the idea of adding puréed dates to the madeleine batter sounded really interesting. It would also be a nice way to use up the last dates I had left – believe it or not after lebkuchen and Martha's cookies I still had a handful of them around; certain ingredients in my house seem to take the Gremlin route no matter what I do. :D

The madeleines turned out really good: moist from the addition of ground almonds and with a very subtle caramel flavor.

Date madeleines
from the beautiful beyond words Annie Bell's Baking Bible (I bought mine here)

100g dates, pitted and chopped
1/3 cup (80ml) water
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons (24g) granulated sugar
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons honey
50g self raising flour*
½ teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
½ cup (50g) almond meal
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup (113g/1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled + a bit extra for buttering the pans
icing sugar for dusting

Place the dates and water in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to the boil, then simmer until dates are tender and mushy (I used a potato masher to get a paste out of the mixture). Add the baking soda, mix well, then remove from the heat.
Using an electric mixer, whisk the eggs and sugar together until they are almost white. Whisk in the lemon zest and honey. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt over the mixture and lightly fold in. Fold in the almond meal and vanilla. Fold in the melted butter and the date mixture.
Cover and chill in the fridge for 1 hour or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F. Lightly brush two madeleines molds with the extra butter and refrigerate for 5 minutes. Fill each mould about 2/3 full and then bake in for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from the oven and turn them out on to a wire rack to cool.
Dust with icing sugar and serve.

* I replace the self raising flour with 50g all purpose flour + 1/3 teaspoon baking powder + pinch of salt

Makes 15-20 – I made the exact recipe above and got 52 madeleines total: 12 using 1-tablespoon capacity molds and 40 using ½-tablespoon capacity pans