I literally made these on a whim. I had recently come into a lot of coconut flour, and I was thinking of what I could make with it. I had also purchased a madeleine pan recently, and thought about making another gluten-free baked good, so that’s where the idea to make a coconut madeleine came into play. So actually making these was a bit of an episode for me. Up until making the batter, it was almost completely smooth sailing. The only issue I really had why I was testing my ratios was noticing how dense my batter was, so I had to add coconut milk into it, which is not typical of a madeleine batter. Normal madeleines only really call for eggs as a wet ingredient. But with gluten-free flours being a lot drier, the coconut milk as an addition not only served to add moisture, thus hydrating my batter, but also another layer of coconut flavor to my final product. Coconut managed to make its way into my gluten/dairy-free batter four times, in the flour, the milk, the oil, and the flakes I garnished the madeleines with. I used leavening agents in my batter, which is a but untraditional, just to help guarantee that they have those little bumps. I didn’t want my madeleines to lack those, since some people would scrutinize them for not being authentic-looking. Now that being aside, like I said, there was a bit of an episode while making these.

Firstly, I had to re-pipe my batter because it was too dense and needed coconut milk added into it. That was my bad for attempting to just take my normal madeleine recipe and sub things out for gluten-free substitutes. It should work like that in theory, but certain gluten-free flours just don’t react the way normal flours do, even when blended together. Secondly, I almost forget the coconut flakes, and when I grabbed them, I managed to knock both my bananas and my ginger straight into my trashcan. So I had to waste time rinsing and drying those off, because I wasn’t about to waste 8 bananas and 3 whole knobs of ginger. Then as I put the pan into the oven, the pan somehow slides off of the rack and lands, open-side down, onto my oven door, causing batter to spill and burn all over my burning-hot oven. So after spending about 20 minutes scraping my oven door and the bottom of my oven clean, I had to salvage what unburnt batter I could from the pan, and I did fortunately make about a 1.5x the recipe I’m providing below, so I had enough spare batter, coupled with what I could retrieve from the pan, to make a clean dozen madeleines. At that point, I thought I was smooth sailing. But then I managed to burn myself against the middle rack of my oven while I was rotating the pan. Honestly, there was a lot drama that went behind making these, but despite that, it was a lot of Murphy’s Law and almost all of the issues that went on in my kitchen had nothing to do with the actual difficulty of the recipe, just that I was either being a spazz or a klutz. And luckily, the first issue, being the dry batter, is mitigated since the recipe I’m providing would obviously have that kink worked out. I do recommend trying these out, regardless if you can or can’t have gluten or dairy, just because these madeleines are light, fluffy, springy, and you won’t miss the gluten or dairy at all in them.

Makes about 12 madeleines:
3/4 cups coconut flour
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1/4 cup coconut oil + more for your pan
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch of salt
coconut flakes

Start by whipping together your coconut oil, granulated sugar, baking powder, soda, vanilla, and salt until light and airy. Whip in your eggs, one at a time. Sift your flours with the xanthan gum. Whisk in the flours and coconut milk. Line a nonstick madeleine pan with coconut oil. Pipe in your batter, filling each pan about 90% the way full. Sprinkle on your coconut flakes. Bake at 375 degrees F for 12 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through to ensure even baking.