Lemon Madeleines

Recipe source - Cupcake Jemma   

Ingredients 

Plain flour - 115 gm 

Caster sugar - 100 gm 

Eggs - 2 large 

Honey - 1 1/2 tsp 

Lemon zest - half of a lemon 

Vanilla extract - 1 /2 tsp 

Melted butter - 110 gm (cooled) 

Baking powder - 1/2 tsp 

salt - pinch  

 

Lemon glace  

Lemon juice - 4 tablespoon 

Icing sugar – 12 tablespoons 

Water – 3 tablespoons 

  

Method 

Take flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and mix. 

In another bowl, crack two eggs and add sugar and beat for 3-4 mins until it's frothy. 

Add in honey, lemon zest, vanilla extract and give it mix. 

Sift the dry ingredients directly into the mixture. 

Gently fold it in until mixed. 

Finally add melted butter in 2-3 additions and gently fold in without knocking much air out. 

Refrigerate the batter for few hours/ overnight or minimum 1 hour. 

Preheat the oven to 195 degree C (fan oven) and bake for about 10 mins. 

Meanwhile grease the madeleine tray generously with butter. 

Take the batter out of the fridge and pour about a tablespoon of batter into each madeleine mould. (Cold batter gets a thermal shock in the oven which gives madeleines its characteristic hump, so make sure your batter is cold.) 

Bake the madeleines for about 10 mins. 

Meanwhile make the lemon glace by mixing lemon juice, icing sugar and water until sugar is all dissolved. 

Once the madeleines are out of the oven, demould it carefully and dip the warm madeleines in lemon glace and allow it to drip on a cooling rack. 

Madeleines tastes heavenly when eaten fresh and warm. 

Lemon glace keeps the madeleines moist even the next day. 

You can also eat them by just dusting some icing sugar on top or dipping it in some melted chocolate. 

Enjoy! 

 

chocolate chip cookies

Recipe halved from -  Humming bird bakery book.

Ingredients( makes large 12 cookies )

Flour - 200 gm/ roughly 1  and another  2/3 cup flour

Butter -115 gm( softened) roughly 1/2 cup

Soft brown sugar -175 gm( roughly 3/4 cup )

Egg -1

Vanilla essence -1/2 tsp

Baking soda - 11/ 4 tsp

Salt - pinch

Chocolate chips - 100 gm ( dark or milk )

Method

Beat butter and sugar until creamy

Add egg and beat until mixed.

Add flour, baking soda , salt and mix .Add half of the chocolate chips and  make a smooth dough .

Divide the dough into 12 equal balls and press rest of  chocolate chips on top of each balls. 

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degree C for 10-11 minutes

Irish soda bread

 

I work in a catholic school where lots of staffs and children come from Ireland. Just like Christmas, 40 days of lent leading up to Easter is very special in our school community and there is always food to celebrate. Even on a normal day there is always coffee /tea, cakes and biscuits.  On march 17 th it’s St Patricks day, a special day for Ireland.  On St Patrick's day there is always Irish soda bread, jam and butter in our staffroom. That’s how I got introduced to this wonderful bread. Though it’s called a bread, I would say it’s more like a scone and the best bit is, it is a no knead bread and you can make this in less than 1 hour if u have all the ingredients handy. 

My other connection to Ireland is my sister lives there and I have been lucky to explore the scenic country quite a few times. I love Ireland for its scenery, lovely people and of course for this soda bread and Irish stew 😊 

Recipe for this Irish bread was adapted from Sally’s baking addiction.

 

Ingredients 

Plain flour – 500 gm/ 4 cups 

Unsalted Butter – 70 gm 

Sugar – 40 gm 

Egg – 1 large 

Buttermilk – 375 ml  

Baking soda – 1 tsp 

Raisins – 150 gm 

Salt – ¾ tsp 

 

Method 

In a bowl take flour, salt, baking soda and sugar. Whisk to mix. 

Add cold butter to the flour and mix it until it resembles bread crumbs.  

Add raisins and mix. 

In another bowl take buttermilk, add in one egg and whisk to mix. 

Pour the buttermilk to the flour and fold in and make a rough sticky dough. 

Transfer the dough to a floured surface and gently try to form a ball with dough with your floured hands. Do not overwork the dough. No need to knead. Add more flour if the dough is too sticky. 

Transfer the dough to a greased 9 inch cake tin and score an X on top. 

Bake the bread in a preheated oven 200 degree C for about 45 minutes or until it appears to be cooked through. 

I covered the bread with a foil in the last 10 mins to avoid excessive browning. 

Wait for the bread to cool down for 15-20 mins before you cut.