Easy Madeleines With Gluten Free Option Food

EASY MADELEINES WITH GLUTEN-FREE OPTION

Steps:

• Preheat your oven to 180°C or 160°C if you have a fan-forced oven.
• Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat.
• Brush your madeleine mold with a little of the melted butter using a pastry brush and dust the mold lightly with some extra flour (use gluten-free if required). Shake off any excess flour and set aside.
• Cook the rest of the butter for about 5 minutes, until the butter turns a golden brown and gives off a nutty aroma. Be careful not too burn the butter!
• Remove the butter from heat and transfer to ceramic bowl to prevent butter cooking further. Set aside to cool.
• Sift the icing sugar and flour into a medium sized bowl. Then stir in the ground almonds/ almond meal.
• In another bowl, whisk the eggwhites until frothy.
• Add the almond and sugar mixture to the eggwhites and whisk to combine. Whisk in the brown butter and honey.
• Spoon the batter into the prepared moulds, filling almost to the top.
• Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until madeleines are light golden and springy to touch. If using gluten-free flour, they may be a very light colour when cooked- really depends on the blend of flours that is in your vlended flour mixture.
• Allow to cool slightly- about ten minutes and remove from the mould by tapping on hard surface. Then cool them on a wire rack.
• Serve with some whipped cream and fresh strawberries for a special treat or 1/2 of each madeleine can be dipped in melted chocolate.
• For a simple presentation- dust lightly with some extra icing sugar.

GLUTEN FREE MADELEINES

Steps:

• Put the butter into a saucepan and melt over a low heat, then leave to cool. Once cooled, add the milk and money and set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs with the sugar until light and fluffy (with my electric hand whisk this takes a good 3-5 minutes) and then add the butter, milk and honey mix for a final quick whisk so its well combined.
• Add your flour, baking powder and lemon zest to the bowl and fold it in until well combined.
• Cover the bowl with cling film or a tea towel and put in your fridge for 3 hours. This is a very important step - don't skip it - it makes the mixture very doughy and is important for the final texture of the Madeleines.
• When you are ready to bake the Madeleines, pre-heat the oven to 190.c, butter and flour your Madeleine shells and put a heaped spoon (teaspoon if you have a mini Madeleine tin or a tablespoon if you have an ordinary sized Madeleine tin) of batter into each Madeleine shell.
• If you want to add any berries to the mixture this is also the point to pop a berry into the centre of the batter in each shell. I did a batch with blackberries and they were yummy so definitely worth experimenting with a few.
• Bake for 5 minutes at 190.c, then turn the oven down to 160.c and bake for a further 5 minutes. Again this is an important step as the temperature change gives the Madeleines their trademark peaks!
• Transfer the baked Madeleine's to a wired rack to cool.
• Repeat processes 5-8 until all your mixture is used up, washing and drying your Madeleine tin in between batches. This mixture should make 24 normal sized Madeleines or 48 (yes you heard me right - 48!) mini Madeleines so there will be plenty to go around.
• On that final note, the Madeleines are best served warm from the oven, but will keep in an airtight container for a couple of days if you don't gobble them all up in one go. They do become a little tacky to touch after the first day, but still taste delicious. Enjoy....

ALMOND, CITRUS & COCONUT TART - WITH GLUTEN FREE OPTION

Steps:

• Preheat your oven to 160 degrees centigrade.
• Grease a 24cm pie dish. (The pie will totally fill this dish). You can use a smaller pie dish with high sides or any oven-proof dish large enough to take the mixture.
• Place all of the ingredients in a food processor and process for one minute.
• Pour mixture into the prepared pie dish and bake 30-40 minutes. When cooked the top will be golden and the filling should be just a little wobbly when the dish is shaken.
• The tart will continue to set as it cools. Serve the tart chilled and dust with icing sugar just prior to serving.
• (Note: to toast the almonds- add them to a dry non-stick frypan and stir over heat until lightly golden and toasted.).