Weekend CookBook Challenge #25 - Nigella Lawson

This month’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge is hosted by Foodiechickie and the theme is - Nigella Lawson . I admit I am a fan of Nigella’s show, I’ve never heard anyone describe food the way she does, but I only have one of her cookbooks and have never tried any of her recipes. I wanted to try something simple, so I chose the RoseBud Madelienes from her cookbook How To Be A Domestic Goddess.

The recipe says that this should make 48 mini Madeleines, but since I only have a full size pan I decided to use that. I am not sure how small mini Madeleines are, but I have to say I was quite shocked when the batter made just about one cup. I filled each cavity with one tablespoon of batter – which gave me 10 full sized Madeleines. The recipe states to cook for 5 minutes but start checking after 3 minutes, but since these are full sized they took a little longer – about 11 minutes in my oven.

The texture of the cookie was quite nice and was really light – but i wasnt too crazy about the taste, I felt it was missing something. I would make these again in the spring – doubling the recipe of course. But I don’t think I would use the rosewater flavor, I would either use vanilla or maybe some lemon zest.

ROSEBUD MADELEINES ( from How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking by Nigella Lawson)

INGREDIENTS
- ¼ cup (50g) unsalted butter, plus 1 tablespoon for greasing
- 1 large egg
- 2 tbsp (40g) caster sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1/3 cup (45g) plain flour
- 1 tablespoon rosewater
- icing sugar for dusting
- 24-bun mini-Madeleine tin

DIRECTIONS
-Melt all the butter over a low heat, then leave to cool.
-Beat the egg, caster sugar and salt in a bowl for about 5 minutes, preferably with an electric mixer of some sort, until it’s as thick as mayonnaise.
-Then sprinkle in the flour; I hold a sieve above the egg and sugar mixture, put the flour in and shake it through.
-Fold in the flour with a wooden spoon and then set aside a scant tablespoon of the cold, melted butter for greasing the tins and fold in the rest along with the rosewater.
-Mix well, but not too vigorously. Leave to rest in the fridge for 1 hour, then take out and leave at room temperature for half an hour.
-Preheat the oven to 425ºF (220ºC)
-Generously brush the insides of the Madeleine tins with the tablespoon of butter (melting more if you feel you need it) before filling them with half the cake mixture (this amount does 2 batches).
-About 1 teaspoonful in each should do: don’t worry about covering the molded indentations; in the heat of the oven the mixture will spread before it rises.
-Bake for 5 minutes, though check after 3.
-Turn out and let cool on a rack, then arrange on a plate and dust with icing sugar.
-Repeat with the remaining half of the mixture.
Makes 48 mini or about 10 full sized.