Cocoa and Lavender: User Error

While I love a good clementine, sometimes a three-pound bag has just a few too many.

I really love them in Ottolenghi's Roasted Chicken with Fennel and Clementines, and have made it several times recently.

I would love to make a clementine curd tart, but using 10 egg yolks, tons of butter, and squeezing all that clementine juice? Maybe another time.

Today, I surfed the Web, combined several recipes, added a few of my own changes, and decided to present you with Clementine Madeleines. What could possible be wrong with these?

User error, that's what.

Everything was looking perfect. There was just the perfect amount of batter to fill the molds. And then I went to put them in the oven.

At that very moment, I glanced at the stovetop and wondered why there was a small saucepan of cooled, melted butter.

Sheesh! Butter! Madeleines have butter. My batter lacked butter. So, I scraped the batter back into the bowl, washed and re-prepared the mold.

I poured the melted butter into the butterless batter and, as gently as I could, folded it in. No one likes a deflated Madeleine. Oddly, the amount of batter was almost the same - just enough for 12 Madeleines.

It was reminiscent of having the 9-year old kid next door come over to fix your computer, only to tell you you have an "ID Ten T" error... or, more clearly written ID10T.

At least I didn't need to have that kid come over to tell me I'm an idiot. I can tell myself just fine.

Happily, the Madeleines came out perfectly.

Clementine Madeleines

for preparing the molds:

3/4 tablespoon butter

1/2 tablespoon flour

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

6 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons flour

3 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons superfine sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

finely grated zest of 2 clementines

1 tablespoon clementine juice

confectioner’s sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Prepare the Madeleine pan: melt 3/4 tablespoon butter, then mix in the 1/2 tablespoon flour. Using a pastry brush, “paint” the insides of the molds with the butter and flour mixture. Set aside.

Using a hand-held mixer, beat the egg and sugar together until they become thick and pale. Whisk together the flour and baking powder, then sprinkle onto the egg mix and gently fold in. Add the melted butter, clementine zest and clementine juice; gently fold into the egg mixture.

Fill Madeleine molds two-thirds full (a heaping teaspoon), and bake for 11 minutes. When they are golden around the edges, remove them from the oven and let cool 2-3 minutes. Using a thin spatula, loosen the edges and push the Madeleines out to cool on a rack.