These Brown Butter Madeleines have a sweet, nutty flavor and the classic cake-like texture of French madeleines. The perfect little afternoon treat, and oh-so-elegant!
When we lived in France, a small bag full of madeleines from the corner bakery was a frequently requested after-school treat for my girls. They would grab one and nibble it on the short walk home—the perfect portable little cake.
Luckily, though these cookies may look fancy, you can make them easily in your own kitchen with the help of a madeleine pan. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll want to try these Chocolate Madeleines next.
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Why Make This Recipe
- Not too sweet with a light cake-y texture
- So delicious with a cup of coffee or tea
- Brown butter adds flavor and depth to these classic French cookies
🥗 Ingredients
- Butter: I prefer unsalted butter, so that you can control the salt content yourself. But you can definitely use salted butter instead.
- Sugar: This recipe calls for a combination of granulated sugar and brown sugar. Leave out the brown sugar if you don’t have any.
- Orange Zest: The zest adds just a little more flavor to these cookies. You could leave it out, or try replacing with lemon zest.
- Eggs: Let these come to room temperature before making this recipe, if possible. They will mix into the batter better and rise better as well.
- Milk: Any percent milk fat is fine for this recipe. The milk just adds a little more liquid to the batter. You can also replace with non-dairy milk if you prefer.
- Flour: I use a combination of all-purpose flour and almond flour in this recipe. The almond flour helps give these Madeleine cookies a more delicate texture and adds to the nutty flavor from the brown butter.
🥣 Step-by-Step Instructions
Add 8 tablespoons butter to a small skillet and melt over medium heat. When butter has fully melted, continue to cook until it turns light brown and has a nutty smell, about 2-3 minutes.
Pour butter into a shallow bowl and cool for 15 minutes in the refrigerator.
Combine ⅔ cup granulated sugar and 2 tablespoons brown sugar with 1 teaspoon orange zest. Add to the bowl of a stand mixer, along with 3 room temperature eggs.
Using the whip attachment, beat eggs with sugar for about 4 minutes on high speed, until mixture has thickened and has roughly doubled in size. Beat in 2 tablespoons milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.
With a sifter or fine-meshed sieve, add 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, ½ cup almond flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, and ½ teaspoon kosher salt to the mixer bowl. If all of the almond flour won’t go through the sifter, just pour the rest of it in as is.
Fold the flour mixture in gently, adding in the melted butter before the flour is completely mixed in. Pouring in some of the browned solids at the bottom of the butter is fine, but leave anything overly browned in the bowl.
Spray madeleines pan with cooking spray and put in the freezer for 30 minutes. Put the batter in the refrigerator to chill during this time. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Remove pan from the freezer and fill each mold with a generous tablespoon of batter—the amount should look like it would fill ¾ of each mold if spread out.
Bake for 9 minutes, and remove when madeleines spring back if you touch them gently. Bang tray on the counter gently when you remove it from the oven to loosen madeleines, then wait a minute or two and carefully remove the madeleines onto a cooling rack.
Let cool, and sprinkle with powdered sugar to serve. Repeat the process with the remaining batter, including chilling the batter and pan—you may only have enough batter for 23 cookies.
Storage Tips
Store madeleines in an airtight container at room temperature. They will last for about 2 days before they begin to get stale. That said, at that point they are still delicious dipped in coffee or tea!
🧐 Recipe FAQs for French Madeleines
Yes, you can. Freeze them on a plate until they are individually frozen, then put in a freezer bag to store. Defrost in the refrigerator for 24 hours. If possible, freeze before adding powdered sugar.
I’m going to go with—both! Madeleines are known in France as a “gâteau de voyage,” which means a cake for traveling. And technically, they are made like a butter cake. But due to their size and shape, most people refer to them as cookies.
The hump is part of the traditional shape of the madeleine. It occurs because both the batter and the pan are chilled before baking. The batter hitting the hot air in the oven creates the hump.
👩🍳 Expert Tips
If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can use a hand mixer instead. Just make sure to beat the mixture until it has doubled in size. It will take longer with a hand mixer.
Let me let you in on a trick from pastry school. Sift the dry ingredients onto a piece of parchment paper, then just pick up the parchment paper as a sling and pour into the mixer bowl.
If you have a pastry bag handy, scrape the batter into your bag, then pipe the batter into the madeleine molds.
I *highly* recommend a nonstick madeleine pan. But if you do not have one, you will want to grease and flour your madeleine molds very thoroughly.
Now that you are hooked on the basics of madeleines, it’s time to play with flavors! Make a citrus-flavored sugar syrup by combining lemon or orange juice with sugar and water. Then brush over warm madeleines just out of the oven. Upping the sugar in your syrup will give you a lemon or orange glaze that you can paint on the top instead (or dip your madeleines into). Or melt chocolate—dipping half or just the tips of the madeleines in chocolate, then letting them harden, is quite delicious.
Other Delicious French Dessert Recipes
Love French desserts? Try this Dark Chocolate Mousse or this Apple Galette next. Or check out one of my other favorite French pastry recipes here:
If you try this recipe, I would love to hear from you! Please rate this French Madeleines recipe and leave a comment below—your feedback is invaluable to me.
And please follow along on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook or subscribe to my newsletter. I’d love to inspire you with more delicious, healthy, and seasonal recipes!
📖 Recipe
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Brown Butter Madeleines
Ingredients
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter (4 ounces)
- ⅔ cup sugar (5 ounces)
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- 3 eggs at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (5.5 ounces)
- ½ cup almond flour (2 ounces)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- Powdered sugar to serve
Instructions
- Add butter to a small skillet and melt over medium heat. When butter has fully melted, continue to cook until it turns light brown and has a nutty smell, about 2-3 minutes.
- Pour butter into a shallow bowl and cool for 15 minutes in the refrigerator.
- Combine both sugars with the orange zest.
- Add to the bowl of a stand mixer, along with the eggs.
- Using the whip attachment, beat eggs with sugar for about 4 minutes on high speed, until mixture has thickened and has roughly doubled in size. Beat in the milk and vanilla.
- With a sifter or fine-meshed sieve, add flour, almond flour, baking powder, and salt to the mixer bowl. If all of the almond flour won’t go through the sifter, just pour the rest of it in as is.
- Fold the flour mixture in gently, adding in the melted butter before the flour is completely mixed in. Pouring in some of the browned solids at the bottom of the butter is fine, but leave anything overly browned in the bowl.
- Spray madeleine pan with cooking spray and put in the freezer for 30 minutes. Put the batter in the refrigerator to chill during this time. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Remove pan from the freezer and fill each mold with a rounded tablespoon of batter—the amount should look like it would fill ¾ of each mold if spread out. Put the remaining batter back in the refrigerator.
- Bake for 9 minutes, and remove when madeleines spring back if you touch them gently.
- Bang tray on the counter gently when you remove it from the oven to loosen madeleines, then wait a minute or two and carefully remove the madeleines onto a cooling rack.
- Let cool, and sprinkle with powdered sugar to serve.
- Wipe out the pan, and chill again for 15 minutes, before filling with the remaining batter and baking.
Notes
Store madeleines in an airtight container at room temperature. They will last for about 2 days before they begin to get stale. That said, at that point they are still delicious dipped in coffee or tea! Expert Tips:
If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can use a hand mixer instead. Just make sure to beat the mixture until it has doubled in size. It will take longer with a hand mixer. Let me let you in on a trick from pastry school. Sift the dry ingredients onto a piece of parchment paper, then just pick up the parchment paper as a sling and pour into the mixer bowl. If you have a pastry bag handy, scrape the batter into your bag, then pipe the batter into the madeleine molds. I *highly* recommend a nonstick madeleine pan. But if you do not have one, you will want to grease and flour your madeleine molds very thoroughly.
Nutrition
Instagram Users: Now that you've made this Madeleine cookie recipe, tag me @vanillabeancuisine or #vanillabeancuisine because I’d love to see your results!
More About Molly
Cooking healthy(ish) meals with seasonal ingredients is my passion. Trained as a French pastry chef, I spent over 10 years as a personal chef. Here you'll find well-tested recipes that you and your family will love!
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