Madeleines with Lavendar Honey

Madeleine's.  Those cute little French cookies that are soft and fragrant and perfect with tea.  I've always loved them but haven't spent much time perfecting the making of them. Until I decided to play around with Lavender. I bought food grade lavender one day and decided I was going to make these cookies and a lavender ice cream.  I have yet to try the ice cream but it's on my to do list for this summer. 

Now lavender can be tricky.  It's rather strong to me so I would go easy on it in this recipe.  If you absolutely love it however, feel free to let yourself go nuts.  I buy lavender essential oil and use it in my bath, and on a heat wrap for my neck. It's also great for rubbing on the temples if you have a headache. But cooking with it seems a bit more risky.  

Now I don't know about you but I don't keep lavender honey in my pantry so I had to make my own.  I buy a good local honey from my local farmers market so I just added a small tsp of lavender to a tablespoon of honey.  I let it sit in a bowl for a couple of days to, hopefully, extract more of the flavor. Depending on your lavender, you can crush it up very fine, which I would suggest so you don't get those bits in the finished product. 

You will need a Madeleine pan for this recipe. You can find them at kitchen supply stores. I've had one for years because I always thought I would make these on a regular basis. Ha! Who was I kidding?

Ingredients: 

9 Tbsp butter
4 large egg whites
1 1/3 cups powdered sugar 
6 Tbsp all purpose flour 
1/4 cup almond flour 
1 Tbsp lavender honey

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

Butter and flour the pan. Tap out any excess flour. 

Your almond flour needs to be fine.  I usually buy almond meal because it is readily available to me but then I put it in my vitamix, or food processor, and grind it so that it is more of a flour. This will create a lighter cookie.  

Melt the butter in a small skillet until it starts to turn brown, about 5 minutes. Set aside. 

Using an electric mixer beat the egg whites briefly then add the sugar, white flour, and almond flour and mix until smooth and well blended. Place the honey in the microwave and heat for 5 to 10 seconds then pour into the batter. Add the brown butter and beat to blend. 

Spoon 1 tablespoon of the batter into each Madeleine mold. 

Bake until tops are dry and tester comes out clean, about 13 minutes.  Allow to cool 5 minutes in the pan, then tap out, and allow to cool completely.  I have a pan that is larger than most so I filled mine with more batter and increased the baking time to 16 minutes. 

Once they are completely cool you can dust them with powdered sugar.

To make additional cookies you will need to completely wash and dry the pan then butter and flour again. It's no fun when the cookies stick!