donut madeleines

This idea was brilliant. It was Stella's. Riffing with a six-year-old is frequently fruitful. Here's how it went down the other day, waiting in line at the coffee shop up the street.

Stella: Can we make brownies today?

Me: No, you're already getting a madeleine.

Stella: Wouldn't it be great if we baked a big pan of madeleines and cut them up like brownies?

Me: Remember our donut brownies?

Stella: DONUT MADELEINES!

Me: You are a genius.

Donuts will always prevail.

So here we are. Probably one of the most donut pan appropriate ideas we've tried yet. They come out of the pan with no effort, they look perfect, they smell perfect, and they taste delicious. The texture is perfect for the donut shape. I'd love to sell these somehow. I know they'd go like hot cakes.

As I've said on other donut pan projects, I'm not reinventing the wheel here. Find a great recipe, and go with it. Here are two to try:

•Joy of Baking madeleine recipe (we used this one)
•101 Cookbooks madeleine recipe (this one uses lemon zest)

Make your batter, keeping the eggs nice and high, refrigerate it if required, and preheat your oven per your recipe. The batter from the Joy of Baking recipe I used is nice and thick after refrigeration, so I needed to use a pastry bag to fill the donut pans. The Joy of Baking recipe yielded a beautiful dozen donut madeleines. They were just fantastic. You'll see!

You can butter and flour your pans if you'd like, but I've given in.

A pastry bag with no tip, just the top ring, is a great way to get the batter into the pans.

Once around is enough.

They will puff up quite a bit during baking.

Bake per your recipe. Look at these babies!

The donut madeleines should flip easily out of the pan. So golden!

Finish cooling on a rack.

 I was so happy to see those familiar air pockets and browned edges. Just like a real madeleine, only rounder!

Luckily for David, I baked these on a Saturday so he could get his hands on several of them. He dripped us some coffee (see how here), and we had a nice little afternoon snack. We managed to save a few to have with breakfast on Sunday, too. These were easy to make, and I will definitely be making these again soon.

And, hey! I'm hosting a donut pan giveaway which ends this Sunday at noon. Click here and leave a quick comment, and it'll put you in the running for two new donut pans, shipped straight from the pan company to you. Then you can make your own madeleines!