Indulge in the warm and comforting flavours with these delicious chai-spiced madeleines. These buttery delights are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, with a hint of chai spice. Coated in rich chocolate, they’re the perfect holiday treat.
It is the baking season again. I bake most during the winter period, particularly during the Christmas season. I love the festive and comforting aroma of warm spices, fruits, chocolate, and nuts incorporated into delicious baked treats.
Oh, I love small, tender cakes. And madeleines are small and cute cakes. One reason madeleines are so special and loved by everyone is their distinctive shell-like shape. This shape makes them instantly recognizable.
While they may seem fancy, madeleines are very simple to make. In fact, all you need is a madeleine form and 20 minutes. You are going to love them. They are delicate, with a lightly crisp exterior, but a tender and moist inside. And, they can be enjoyed plain, dusted with icing sugar or dipped in chocolate.
Chai
For these delicious madeleines, I decided to use the spice Chai. I am sure you’ve heard of it, particularly at a coffee shop. Anyway, Chai is a blend of warm spices, that you can easily prepare at home, too. Moreover, a combination of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, black pepper, cloves and cardamom makes a perfect warming spice blend. You can enjoy it in your coffee, tea, latte or add it to your baking goods.
Additionally, a quick Chai spice blend recipe: Mix 30 g ground cinnamon, 15 g ground ginger, 10 g ground cardamom, 5 g ground cloves, 4 g ground nutmeg and 3 g ground black pepper. Of course, you can adjust the amounts of each spice to your liking. Store the blend in a glass jar.
Here are some of my favourite winter holiday and Christmas recipes: unusual spicy pepper cookies, a classic Christmas fruit cake, crunchy matcha cantuccini, a delicious walnut cake or these wine cookies.
However, if you are more into hearty recipes, you might like these: quinoa stuffed peppers, this gorgeous Hasselback butternut squash, chickpea pan-seared pork fillet, colourful spinach quinoa stuffed squash or this pork crust roast.
As I already said, a chocolate coat is only optional. However, if you decide to go for it, make sure you temper your cocoa butter and chocolate, as well. All the important details are noted below, in the recipe. Also, especially in wintertime, it is important to be quick when working with chocolate. Because of the lower temperatures, the chocolate sets pretty quickly.
Ingredients for 18-20 chai-spiced madeleines:
- 126 g eggs
- 2 g tonka bean paste
- 18 g milk
- 1 g salt
- 4 g chai spice powder (find the recipe above)
- 120 g sugar
- 15 g honey
- 5 g baking powder
- 120 g flour
- 15 g ground hazelnuts
- 156 g melted butter
Optional chocolate garnish:
- cocoa butter
- orange food colouring (for chocolate)
- 400 g white chocolate (chopped or chips)
Begin by preheating your oven to 200°C. While it heats up, melt the butter and set it aside to cool (40-50°C). Then, whisk the eggs, tonka bean paste, milk, salt, sugar and honey, in a larger bowl. Once fluffy and well combined, sieve in the flour, baking powder, hazelnuts and chai spice. At last, stir in the butter.
To continue, transfer the batter into a piping bag and pipe it into the madeleine moulds (90% full). Place them in the oven on the middle rack, lower the temperature to 180°C and bake for 9-10 minutes.
Once baked, remove the madeleines from the oven and let them cool on a wire rack for a couple of minutes. Then, carefully remove them from the mould and let them cool completely.
White chocolate
Furthermore, and this step is only optional, prepare the cocoa butter and chocolate. First, temper the cocoa butter. Using a bain marie, melt the cocoa butter. Once it reaches 40-45°C remove it from the heat and cool it down to 25-26°C. Then, heat it back up to 29-31°C, stir in a couple of drops of the colour and colour the moulds as you desire.
Second, temper the chocolate. Again, using a bain marie, melt 2/3 of the white chocolate. After it reaches 40°C, remove it from the heat, add the remaining chopped chocolate and let it cool down to 26°C, with continuous stirring. Then, reheat it to 28-29°C and transfer it to a piping bag.
Pipe the chocolate into the madeleine moulds. Fill each mould one-third full with batter and place the madeleines (shell side down) back into the moulds. Push them slightly down to spread the chocolate onto the whole bottom surface. Let the chocolate coating set for 10 minutes.
Finally, carefully remove the chai-spiced madeleines coated in chocolate from the moulds and serve them with a nice cup of tea or a chai latte.
Enjoy.
