Marble Madeleines

I love visiting my friends, the pastry chefs in their labs. I remember the first time I walked into a Pastry lab in Paris, I felt like I was behind the scenes of the hottest show in town. It was Angelina’s lab, I was so excited.

Since then a lot of water has flowed under the bridge, and the pastry labs have become my second home. I usually come to them to shoot new desserts with the chefs, stills or videos. Sometimes shooting of one creation can take a few hours, so many details and techniques.

The amount of work in preparing each dessert amazes me every time, so much investment  in one dessert that will be eaten in a few minutes. Of course then comes the photo editing work which is no less complex, how can you give up so many fascinating steps to get to a minute of video? Heartache of dessert pieces left on the editing floor.

This time I met Pierre-Jean Quinonero, the pastry chef of “Le Burgundy Hotel” near the Madeleine Square. I first met Quinonero at the luxury hotel “George V” while he was working with Michael Bartocetti, one of France’s top pastry chefs. One of the interesting things about the world of desserts is seeing the young pastry chefs rise through the ranks and eventually get the Chef title.

Recently Quinonero has been promoted to the pastry chef position at “Le Burgundy Hotel”, after my friend Pascal Hainigue, the former pastry chef of the hotel, moved to “Le Bristol Paris” hotel.

So after he settled down, I recently met Quinonero for an afternoon of shooting and an introduction to his new desserts. Among other things, you will find in his collection the special Mille-Feuille, the lovely Chocolate Flan and of course the Marble Madeleine.

This is a variation on the Madeleine cookie. Instead of a classic Madeleine, he makes it marbled (like a marble cake), coated with two layers of chocolate glaçage and a touch of salted caramel cream inside.

The chef agreed to give me the recipe and the next day we, Gali and I, had already cooked it, in our apartment, while adapting it to the home kitchen.

Some answers to the questions you will probably ask yourself:
♠ Brown butter, a must? Not mandatory, but worth it. The brown butter gives an amazing deep nutty flavor to the Madeleines.

♣ Is it possible without the caramel cream? Definitely possible, the caramel adds more texture and more flavor, but the Madeleine cookies are wonderful even without it.

♥ Is it possible with only one glaçage or no glaçage at all? The glaçage plays several roles in the recipe. It adds a crunchy texture, chocolate flavor, keeps the Madeleine moist and also visually upgrades it. Now it’s you to decide 🙂

Marble Madeleine
12-14 units, depends on your Madeleine mold size

Ingredients 
Madeleine Batter:
135g eggs 
120g light brown sugar
30g honey, I use Acacia
55g milk
185g all-purpose flour, sifted
10g baking powder (sifted with the flour)
185g brown butter (or melted)

Brown Madeleine Batter: 
20g cocoa powder, sifted
35g dark chocolate, chopped

Salted Caramel Cream (possible): recipe inside

Dark Chocolate Glaçage
400g dark chocolate 70%, chopped
40g Canola oil

Milk Chocolate Glaçage:
400g milk chocolate, chopped
40g Canola oil

Preparation 
1. In a medium bowl whisk eggs, sugar, honey and milk. You can use a mixer but no whipping is needed.
2. Add flour and baking powder, mix until the ingredients come together.
3. Slowly add brown butter, mix until the batter becomes smooth. Cover the batter and chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
4. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 230 degrees Celsius. Grease the pan with soft butter. Note that all the folds of the shell are greased.
5. Remove the batter from the refrigerator, transfer half of it to a separate bowl and add to one of the bowls the cocoa and chopped chocolate, mix until a uniform brown batter is obtained.
6. Transfer each mixture (light and brown) into a separate piping bag.
7. Pipe alternately from both mixtures stripes along and across the mold. Fill the mold almost to the top.
8. Bake for 6 minutes at 230C. Lower the temperature to 160C and bake for another 5-8 minutes or until the Madeleines are puffy and firm (attention, each oven is different). 
9. Remove the Madeleines from the oven and while hot, carefully remove them from the pan and cool to room temperature.
10. Using a piping bag, fill each Madeleine with salted caramel cream (just make a small hole and fill), freeze for about two hours.
11. Meanwhile prepare the glaçages: Melt dark chocolate in a double boiler or the microwave, remove from heat and add the oil, stir until smooth. Repeat the process with the milk chocolate as well.
12. Dip each Madeleine in the milk chocolate glaçage and place on a cutting board lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
13. Dip each Madeleine in the dark chocolate glaçage and immediately garnish with milk chocolate glaçage. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
14. It’s recommended to remove the Madeleine from the refrigerator about half an hour before serving.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Paris chez Sharon (@parischezsharon)

Bon-Appétit
Sharon