A while ago, my friend from Masterchef season 5, Ahran, and I decided to do a Facetime and Bake session, where we made madeleines. For my recipe, I went ahead with a strawberry madeleine, using strawberry puree in the batter, and then pressing the baked madeleines into tempered Strawberry Inspiration, in the madeleine pan, and letting the tempered chocolate set around the madeleines in a perfect, shiny, strawberry-flavored coating. Admittedly, my recipe needed some adjusting. The batch I made while Facetiming Ahran(which is what is being photographed), I used too low of an oven temperature in an attempt to preserve the pink color of the strawberry batter. However, when making madeleines, you need to cool down the batter, then bake them at a high temperature. Doing this ensures that they have a nice little bump on the side of the madeleine that is not facing the baking pan, and it is the show of a textbook madeleine. Ahran’s coffee madeleines had that, but mine did not because I lowered my oven temperature by about 25 degrees. So for this recipe, screw the pink color of the sponge, we want them to be perfectly bumpy, and I listed the baking temperature as 400 degrees F so that you will have pretty madeleines like Ahran, instead of semi-flat ones that are covered with Strawberry Inspiration like mine. A lot of madeleine recipes call for refrigerating your batter for 1 hour. Ahran tested freezing her batter for 15 minutes, and hers puffed gorgeously, so the refrigerating the batter portion of making madeleines is less about resting the glutens in the batter and more about getting the batter cold. Just some food for thought, since that was not something I was aware of prior to doing my bake-together with Ahran!

The other technical part of this recipe, besides resting your madeleines adequately and baking them at a high enough temperature is the chocolate coating. Something that you can find on social media a lot these days are these madeleines that have a perfect coating of chocolate around the grooved side. This is done by piping tempered chocolate into a dry non-stick madeleine pan and pressing the madeleines into that. The science behind this is that the chocolate, as it sets around the madeleine, will contract from the madeleine tin itself, and wrap tightly around the madeleine, allowing the chocolate to come off cleaning and enrobe the madeleine gorgeously. When I was doing this with Ahran, my very first madeleine got stuck to the pan, with the chocolate just not wanting to come off. This was because I did not freeze the chocolate long enough to let it contract from the pan(this was after 10 minutes of freezing). I gave my pan another 10 minutes of freezing, and all of the remaining madeleines(plus the scraps and Strawberry Inspiration pieces still stuck to the prematurely removed one), came off very cleanly and perfectly from the pan! With resting madeleines(and their chocolate coatings), patience is a virtue. That was a lesson that cost me a perfectly coated madeleine!

For the strawberry puree:
1/2 cup fresh strawberries, finely diced
2 tbsp granulated sugar
a pinch of salt

In a pot, heat everything up on low heat until the strawberries completely cook down and you are left with a jam-like substance. Allow the mixture to cool down before attempting to use.

For the madeleines:
1,5oz(3 tbsp) strawberry puree*
2 egg whites
1 egg
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
8 tbsp unsalted butter, fully melted

Over a double boiler, whisk the strawberry puree with egg whites until frothy. Transfer the mixture to a stand mixer, and add to that your whole egg, granulated sugar, and vanilla. Begin whipping the eggs with sugar until the mixture triples in volume – you want essentially ribbon-stage eggs. I whipped mine for about 5 minutes to achieve that consistency. Sift into that your flour, baking powder, and salt first, folding that all in. Then to that, fold in your melted butter. Once everything is incorporated, transfer to a piping bag.

Line a madeleine pan with cooking spray or more melted butter. Fill each mold about 3/4 the way full with your batter. Let the batter rest in the refrigerator for an hour, or freezer for 15 minutes. Bake the madeleines at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes.

To garnish:
1/2 cup Strawberry Inspiration or Ruby Chocolate
a pinch of salt
1 tsp cocoa butter*

Line the madeleine pans with a thin layer of cooking spray or oil, and refrigerate them – this will help the chocolate cool down faster. Over a double boiler, melt down 3/4ths of your chocolate with salt. Once everything is fully melted and registers at 115 degrees F, take the bowl off heat and stir in the remaining chocolate(and cocoa butter if using). Continue stirring off heat until the chocolate registers 84 degrees F. Working quickly, place about 1 tbsp of chocolate in each madeleine pan cavity, and quickly press the madeleines into the pans themselves. Allow the madeleines to sit in the pan, in the freezer, for about 10 minutes before attempting to unmold them and serve. If the chocolate is set, you should be able to pop the madeleines right out. If they are still somehow stuck to the mold, freezer them for longer!