Yield:

12

Madeleines owe some of their popularity to French author Marcel Proust, but it's cookbook author Dorie Greenspan who has helped make them more well-known in the U.S. The delicate cookies have a distinct shape made by the special madeleine pan used to bake them in. They’re shell-like on the underside and flat on the top.

Greenspan’s recipe includes a small amount of baking powder, a non-traditional touch she includes because it helps the cake-like cookies to rise slightly. She mixes them by hand and combines the lemon zest with the sugar to make her madeleines extra lemony.

Ingredients

⅔ cup all-purpose flour, plus more for molds
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon fleur de sel or pinch of fine sea salt
⅓ cup sugar
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and warm, plus unmelted for molds
2 tablespoons whole milk

Directions

Combine dry ingredients:

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
Mix sugar and lemon zest:

Place sugar and lemon zest a bowl. Using your fingertips, rub sugar and lemon zest together until sugar is moist and fragrant.
Add eggs, then honey and vanilla:

Add eggs and whisk until mixture is pale and thickens slightly, about 2 minutes. Whisk in honey and vanilla.

If you prefer, this mixing can be done in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.
Add dry ingredients, then melted butter, then milk:

Gently fold in flour mixture in three additions; fold in melted butter until fully incorporated. Stir in milk. Batter should be smooth and shiny.
Cover and chill:

Press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the batter; transfer to refrigerator and let chill at least 1 hour and up to 2 days.
Prepare madeleine pan; divide batter between madeleine cups; refrigerate:

Butter and flour a large madeleine pan. Spoon batter into madeleine pan; transfer to refrigerator for 1 hour.
Preheat oven; bake madeleines:

Place a heavy, large baking sheet in oven; preheat oven to 400°F. Place madeleine pan on preheated baking sheet. Bake until golden and big bumps on top spring back when touched, 11 to 13 minutes.
Remove from pan and cool:

Remove pan from oven and immediately release madeleines from pan by rapping pan on counter. Let cool on a wire rack.

If any madeleines stick to the pan, use a butter knife or fingers to help release them.

Originally appeared: The Martha Stewart Show, Episode 7032