Made with culinary-grade lavender and dipped in a homemade lavender white chocolate, these delicate little cookie cakes are perfect for an afternoon snack or tea party. The lavender in these lavender madeleines is balanced with the white chocolate for a floral but not overwhelming flavor, just like in my lavender chocolate chip cookies.
Traditional madeleine recipes include chill time to help get the little “hump” that signifies a good madeleine, but I’ve spent the better part of a month testing variations and succeeded in finding a way to make no-chill madeleines with good humps! The key lies in using cold eggs straight from the fridge and cooled, melted butter that won’t raise the temperature of the batter too much.
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Ingredients for Lavender Madeleines
Madeleines, just like macarons, are made from an unfussy ingredient list of eggs, sugar, flour, and butter. The fuss comes from the pan you bake them in and the technique, which I’ll cover in the step-by-step process below. For now, I don’t recommend making any substitutions beyond what I’ve listed with each ingredient.
- Dried culinary-grade lavender. Verify that you have culinary-grade lavender (usually sold in a spice jar or otherwise marked). Culinary lavender is grown specifically for the taste, whereas some varieties of lavender are grown for the aromatics and can taste soapy.
- Granulated sugar. Beyond making these little cakes sweet, sugar also helps create air in the eggs during whisking, keeps the cakes moist, and helps turn these cakes golden brown once baked.
- Eggs. By whipping them for a good while with sugar, the proteins and fats in eggs help to hold these little cakes together perfectly.
- All-purpose flour. I like the texture of madeleines with all-purpose flour, and you don’t have to buy specialty cake flour.
- Baking powder. The most traditional madeleine recipes don’t typically use baking powder, as all the lift comes from whipping the eggs to the ribbon stage. But seeing as this madeleine recipe doesn’t have a chill time and we’re not sticking with tradition, a little baking powder for insurance won’t hurt.
- Salt. Just a pinch helps to enhance all the flavors and balance the sweetness.
- Unsalted butter. I usually use either kind of butter, but unsalted is traditional for madeleines.
- White chocolate. I like to use Ghirardelli or similar, as more premium white chocolate includes a higher percentage of cocoa butter and imparts a better flavor.
Why Would I Want Madeleines with No Chill Time?
Madeleine recipes typically require a chill time (anywhere from 15 minutes to overnight, depending on the recipe). I’m big on baking science, so I understand that there are reasons for this. The idea is that the sudden temperature change (called thermal shock) helps to make the little hump that signifies a good madeleine.
However, I store my eggs in the fridge, and the first step of every madeleine recipe is to allow the eggs to come to room temperature, then make the batter and chill it. That would mean I wait a couple hours (or use the hot water trick) for my eggs to warm, then whisk them up in the batter and chill once more, until the batter gets to the same temperature the eggs originally were when I pulled them out of the fridge.
There has to be a better way!
So, with my baker science hat on and a number of madeleine test batches, I discovered a couple of things:
- Eggs whip up very similarly with modern stand mixers, whether the eggs are cold or at room temperature. (I’ve found this to be true many times when whipping up meringue from cold egg whites for lavender macarons.)
- Placing your madeleine pan in the fridge prior to piping will help to directly chill smaller portions of batter.
- Using just barely melted butter that has had ample time to cool doesn’t raise the overall temperature of the batter enough to require a dedicated chill time.
And once I was able to figure all that out, I was able to combine those tips for the best madeleine recipe without a chill time!
How to Make Lavender Madeleines
Madeleines aren’t too technically difficult, and they don’t take too long to make. I have everything you need to know in the recipe card below, but if you want a little extra guidance to make your lavender madeleines, feel free to scroll through these process steps. You can also watch me make these no-chill lavender madeleines in the short video below:
Grinding the Lavender Sugar
With a mortar and pestle, spice grinder, or even food processor, grind the lavender with a little bit of granulated sugar. This helps to both break up the lavender to better release the oils inside for a strong and even flavor throughout the batter. It also prevents someone from finding a whole lavender bud somewhere in their mouth later (it’s not dangerous by any means, but the texture and strong flavor can be unpleasant).
Once the lavender buds and sugar have been finely ground, add the mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer.
Whipping the Eggs to the Ribbon Stage
At the start of whipping the lavender sugar, granulated sugar, and cold eggs together, the mixture will be quite yellow and thin. As everything is whipped together, the proteins in the egg suspend some of the air whipped into them. With enough air in the batter, the mixture turns into a pale, pale yellow (almost white!) with speckles of lavender throughout.
After 8-10 minutes, the mixture should have thickened to this point, called the ribbon stage. To test it, pick up your whisk and let some batter fall off it into the bowl. The batter should leave a trail that is visible for a second or two before fading back into rest of the batter.
Folding the Lavender Madeleine Batter
Just like with macarons, we want to keep as much air as possible into the batter when adding dry ingredients. To do this, fold the flour, baking powder, and salt into the whipped eggs gently. Go around the edges of the bowl with a good spatula, then straight down the middle. Repeat, turning the bowl as needed, until there are no dry patches. Make sure to scrape the bowl’s sides and bottom at least two to three times.
Once you see no dry patches, it’s time to add the melted butter. For best results, use melted butter that has had a chance to cool significantly. The closer the butter is to becoming a solid again, the better!
Pour the butter into the bowl and use the same motions to fold the butter into the lavender madeleine batter. It won’t incorporate at the start, but it will if you keep folding. (Promise!)
When no streaks of butter remain, stop folding: We want to keep as much air in these little cakes as possible!
Baking the Lavender Madeleines
For the neatest and most consistent results, I recommend piping the madeleine batter into the cavities in a chilled madeleine pan. The cold pan will help with the thermal shock once the madeleines go in the oven, and piping ensures you have a similar amount of batter in each cavity.
If you don’t want to pipe the madeleines, you can use a spoon to fill the madeleine cavities with a scant Tablespoon of batter. The molds should be about half full, but they will fill up once baked.
Place any leftover batter in a covered container in the fridge, then bake the madeleines at 350°F/175°C for 8-10 minutes until the edges are a light golden brown and the humps spring back when poked.
Note: If you have this same pan, you may want to use slightly less batter in the inner rows to help them bake evenly. The outer rows darken a little faster than the inner rows.
Making the Lavender White Chocolate and Decorating
Just like for the lavender madeleine batter, grind some lavender buds in your mortar and pestle, spice grinder, or food processor.
Melt white chocolate in the microwave at half power—or over a double boiler—in a medium bowl until fully melted. Stir in the finely ground lavender. The chocolate will become speckled with the lavender buds but will not seize.
Once the lavender madeleines have cooled, I dip them into the lavender white chocolate at an angle. You’re welcome to decorate your lavender madeleines however you’d like! If your pan has a little bit of flex (my madeleine pan from USA Pan does not, I’ve learned!), you can coat the outside of the madeleines with the lavender white chocolate.
Place about a teaspoon of the lavender white chocolate in a cooled pan, lightly press a madeleine on top, and chill for 10-15 minutes in the freezer until the chocolate sets. Then, twist the pan to get the madeleines to pop right out!
Allow the decorated lavender madeleines to set, about 30 minutes, before transferring to an airtight container.
FAQs about Recipe
I’ve found that by using cold eggs, the batter is still quite chilled by the time I pipe them into a cold pan and pop them in the oven. I recommend chilling the batter between batches, as the pan is usually still a little warm when you pipe the second batch, though.
Nope, not one bit! There’s just enough lavender to taste in the cookie/cake itself. The lavender in the white chocolate is stronger, but the sweetness of the white chocolate pairs with it beautifully. If yours came out soapy, check to make sure you’re using culinary-grade lavender, which has a better flavor than aromatic lavender.
These madeleines are best eaten within a day or so of baking them, but they will last for up to three days when stored in an airtight container at room temperature.
Other Recipes You May Enjoy
Lavender is one of my favorite flavors, so I make a lot of baked goods with it. Proof: I just ordered a full pound of it to resupply my stock!
One of the easiest ways to add lavender flavor to drinks is with my lavender simple syrup. It goes beautifully in iced drinks like lavender London fogs and makes a great replacement for Monin lavender syrup (which can get pricey!).
The process of making madeleines is also pretty similar to making macarons (gotta love the French), so my lavender lemon macarons might be right up your alley!
Dish Cleanup: A Lil Messy
I rate my recipe cleanups on a scale of 1 to 5. 1 is only a handful of dishes, and 5 is everything including the kitchen sink.
My lavender madeleines recipe has a cleanup rating of a 3. This may look like a lot of dishes for a three, but they’re mostly larger items that take up a bit of space. Nothing is too difficult to clean, especially if you rinse off the whisk attachment and bowl as soon as you’re done with them.
Lavender Madeleines with Lavender White Chocolate Recipe
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If you make these lavender madeleines and love them, please don’t forget to rate the recipe five stars.
Lavender Madeleines
Delicate lavender madeleines are made with dried culinary lavender and dipped in homemade lavender white chocolate. Even better, this no-chill madeleine recipe uses cold eggs to get those little madeleine humps without having to wait!
Ingredients
For the Lavender Sugar
- 1 teaspoon dried, culinary-grade lavender
- 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar (25 g)
For the Lavender Madeleines
- ½ cup granulated sugar (100 g)
- 2 large eggs, cold
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (140 g)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder (2 g)
- ¼ teaspoon salt (2 g)
- 8 Tablespoons unsalted butter (113 g), melted and cooled
For the Lavender White Chocolate Coating
- 1½ teaspoons dried, culinary-grade lavender
- 100 g white chocolate (about a heaping ½ cup of chips)
Instructions
To Make the Lavender Sugar
- In a mortar and pestle or spice grinder, grind the lavender and sugar together until the buds are fine. Set aside.
To Make the Lavender Madeleines
- Preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C, and brush a light coating of melted butter into each cavity in the madeleine pan.* Place the prepared pan in the fridge to chill.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or large bowl, add the lavender sugar, granulated sugar, and cold eggs straight from the fridge. Whisk on medium high (level 8 on a KitchenAid) for 8-10 minutes, until the mixture is pale yellow and voluminous. This is known as the ribbon stage, where the mixture falls off the whisk in ribbons that are clearly visible for a second or two before disappearing back into the mixture.
- Fold in the flour, baking powder, and salt with a spatula until just combined, where no lumps of flour remain.
- Pour in the cooled yet still melted butter, and fold together until just combined. The butter won't look like it will incorporate at the first, but it will after a few more gentle folds. Do your best not to overmix the batter once the butter is incorporated—we want as much air in these little cakes as possible!
- Spoon or pipe a scant Tablespoon or so of the batter into each cavity. Cover and chill any leftover batter in the fridge while the first batch bakes.**
- Bake for 9-11 minutes, until the humps are firm in the center when poked and the edges of the madeleines are a dark golden brown. Allow the madeleines to cool for five minutes in the pan, then slide them out of their molds and transfer them to a sheet of parchment paper or cooling rack to finish cooling.
- If necessary, allow the madeleine pan to cool to room temperature, then pipe or spoon the leftover, chilled batter into the cavities and bake as directed.
To Make the Lavender White Chocolate
- Grind the lavender with a mortar and pestle or spice grinder until very fine.
- In a medium microwave-safe bowl, heat the white chocolate chips at half power for about 90 seconds, stirring every 30 seconds, until fully melted.
- Stir in the finely ground lavender.
To Dip the Lavender Madeleines
- Once the madeleines have cooled enough to handle (about 10 minutes), pick one up at the base of the shell and dip it into the lavender white chocolate at an angle. Shake the madeleine lightly to thin the coating, then wipe any excess chocolate off the madeleine and back into the bowl.
- Place the dipped madeleine on a sheet of parchment paper to set, at least 30 minutes.
- Once set, serve immediately. Enjoy!
Notes
*My nonstick madeleine pan doesn't need butter for the madeleines to slide right out, but I recommend brushing your pan with butter just in case! It doesn't take very much to coat them, so you can use the melted butter for the madeleines if you'd like.
**If you want very tall madeleine humps, you can chill this batter in a sealed piping bag or covered bowl up to a day before baking.
Madeleines are best eaten the same day, but they will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
24Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 102Total Fat: 6gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 27mgSodium: 43mgCarbohydrates: 12gFiber: 0gSugar: 8gProtein: 1g
The nutrition facts are estimated and may vary based on specific ingredients used.
I’d love to see how your lavender madeleines turn out: Take a photo and tag me on Instagram @floralapronblog to share with me, or use the hashtag #floralapronbakes.