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Dessert

Madeleines

Madeleines are small French sponge cakes made with flour, cream, egg yolks, and powdered sugar, baked in a 400°F oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Madeleines

Oven, in the book's wordsA sharp oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a sharp oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the custard

  1. In a basin, mix flour, cream, egg yolks, and powdered sugar.

  2. Place the basin in boiling water.

  3. Stir the mixture until it is hot but not boiling.

  4. Let the mixture cool.

Assemble

  1. Roll out puff paste as thin as possible.

  2. Cut the puff paste in halves.

  3. Spread the mixture on one half of the puff paste.

  4. Cover with the other half of the puff paste.

  5. Glaze the assembled puff paste with egg.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  2. Cut the baked madeleines into equal pieces.

  3. Dust with granulated sugar.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the cream mixture as it heats, giving the filling body and richness.
Flour
Helps thicken the filling and gives it a stable, sliceable structure.
Thin cream
Adds moisture and richness to the filling.
Puff paste
Forms the flaky, layered pastry that encloses the filling.
Egg for glazing
Promotes browning and a glossy finish on the pastry surface.

The step that matters

Stirring the mixture while heating it. Egg yolks thicken only gently. If the mixture gets too hot or boils, the yolks can scramble and turn grainy, so stir steadily and stop at hot but not boiling.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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