How To Make Perfect Lemon Madeleines (+VIDEO)

In this post, I'm sharing how to make very simple yet authentic lemon madeleines from scratch. Follow along step-by-step with clear tips, images, and a video!

🧡 I love this lemon madeleine because:

• It's very soft inside while the outside is slightly crispy.
• It is so moist and has a perfect bounciness & density.
• The flavor...! Buttery and perfectly citrusy.
• The best part is: It is so easy to make!

Madeleine is one of my favorite french desserts including cream puffs, crème brûlée, opera cake, etc!

In this post, you'll learn essential baking tips such as:

• Tips to make them rise more in the oven
• How to create the cute signature bumps on madeleines
• Tips to prevent them from getting dry
• How to store it & the shelf life ... and so on!

Jump to:

• 📌 What's in Lemon Madeleines?
• 📌 How To Make Lemon Madeleines
• 📌 Tips For Making Lemon Madeleines
• 📌 Uses for Lemon Madeleine
• 📌 Frequently Asked Questions
• 📌 VIDEO: Lemon Madeleine
• 📌 Printable Recipe
• Lemon Madeleines

📌 What's in Lemon Madeleines?

The 10 ingredients:

The madeleine batter

• Unsalted butter
  • Butter adds rich flavor and moist texture.
• Lemon zest
  • The aroma of lemon gets enhanced by adding the zest.
• Granulated sugar
• Salt
  • It gives more depth in flavor.
• Honey
  • It helps to keep madeleine moist. It also helps to caramelize the surface more.
• Whole eggs
• Cake flour
  • It gives a more delicate, soft texture.
• Baking powder
  • Baking powder is needed since we do not whip eggs for this recipe.
• Lemon juice
  • Preferably use fresh lemon juice.

Lemon Icing

• Powdered sugar
• Lemon juice
• Water

📌 How To Make Lemon Madeleines

The 11 Simple Steps

The madeleine batter

1. Mix zested lemon, sugar, and salt.
2. Add eggs and honey. Mix well.
3. Add sifted cake flour and baking powder. Mix until it looks smooth.
4. Add melted butter (very warm). Mix well.
5. Add lemon juice and mix. Clean a bowl and spatula to check if it's even.
6. Let it rest in the fridge for more than one hour. Meanwhile, Grease your pan with a thin layer of butter, dust all-purpose flour, and toss to remove the excess. Also, chill it in a fridge until right before use.
7. Pipe the batter onto a mold up to about 85% of the capacity.
8. 🔥 Preheat oven to 395 F | 201 C. And bake at 365 F | 185 C for 8 - 10 minutes.

Lemon Icing

9. Mix powdered sugar, lemon juice, and water until it looks smooth.
10. Coat it on top of the madeleines (or both sides) thinly.
11. 🔥 Bake at 302 F | 150 C for 1 minute to let the surface dry completely. Enjoy!

📍 The printable recipe is at the very end of this post.

Jump to Recipe

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📌 Tips For Making Lemon Madeleines

Now, let me share detailed tips on each step that are crucial for making lemon madeleine successfully.

Step 1: Mix zested lemon, sugar, and salt.

💬 Do not zest lemon too deep: The white part below the yellow skin is very bitter!

👩🏻‍🍳 I like to do this as a very first thing so that the flavor of lemon gets transferred to sugar more.

Step 2: Add eggs and honey. Mix well.

💬 Honey helps to keep madeleines moist. It also caramelizes the surface more.

Step 3: Add sifted cake flour and baking powder. Mix until it looks smooth.

💬 Cake flour gets lumpy easier than all-purpose flour and bread flour. I recommend sifting it!

Step 4: Add melted butter (very warm) and mix well.

💬 It's important to use warm, melted butter so that it does not start getting hardened as you mix since butter turns into a solid as it cools down. Warm it up to 40 - 50 C | 104 - 122 F.

Step 5: Add lemon juice and mix. Clean a bowl and spatula to check if it's even.

💬 Clean a bowl and spatula at the end to make sure the batter is completely even.

Step 6: Let it rest in the fridge for more than one hour.

(Meanwhile, Grease your pan with a thin layer of butter, dust all-purpose flour, and toss to remove the excess. Also, chill it in a fridge until right before use.)

💡 Chilling it for enough time here is SO important. By doing it, the gluten in flour gets rested and weakened and it helps the batter to rise more in the oven.

Also by using the cold batter, the center rises creating cute bumps on top due to the temperature gap.

Grease soft butter thinly all over the surface. This is the pan I used.

Dust all-purpose flour. (You can also use cake flour or bread flour. It gets crunchier with bread flour.)

And toss to remove the excess flour.

👩🏻‍🍳 By chilling the pan until right before use, the surface gets more evenly caramelized.

Step 7: Pipe the batter onto a mold up to about 85% of the capacity.

You can pipe with ease using a pastry bag. (You can also use a spoon or something else if you can not get it.)

Dividing the rest on top so that each of them gets the same amount.

💬 This is the perfect amount. The bumps get smaller when you fill less, and they spread widely when you fill more than this.

Step 8: Preheat oven to 395 F | 201 C. And bake at 365 F | 185 C for 8-10 minutes.

Adjust the time and temperature depending on your oven.

It is so fun to look at them rising in the oven. The bumps are so cute!

Let them cool completely on a pan like this. Be careful not to burn yourself!

Step 9: Mix powdered sugar, lemon juice, and water until it looks smooth.

Step 10: Coat it on top of the madeleines (or both sides) thinly.

Coat it very thinly.

Step 11: 🔥 Bake at 302 F | 150 C for 1 minute to let the surface dry completely.

👩🏻‍🍳 It'll eventually get dry even if you don't bake the surface but baking it creates more crispiness. It's very subtly crispy since it is very thin.

📌 Uses for Lemon Madeleine

These little snacks are amazing on every occasion but here is how I often bake them for:

• As an afternoon tea snack
  • Maybe you have a visitor or your family is asking for snacks; This is a perfect fancy dessert to make quickly and still can impress your family and friends.
• As a morning treat
  • There is something about the morning with freshly baked madeleines and a cup of coffee or tea. The start of a great day is guaranteed.
• As a gift
  • This is a great dessert to bring to someone as a gift since it does not break easily and can do pretty well at room temperature compared to other pastries. I sometimes bake them for Rei's friends and teachers and they absolutely loved them!

📌 Frequently Asked Questions

📌 VIDEO: Lemon Madeleine

To learn how to make the madeleines visually and have a deeper understanding of all, watch this video.

Don't forget to subscribe if you liked it😉

💬 If you loved this recipe, please share your feedback on this post! I always love to hear how you enjoyed it at home with your friends and family.

📌 Printable Recipe

If you like simple and delicious french pastries like this madeleine, also check out my crème brûlée recipe. It is so easy to make yet tastes & looks incredible.

You may also like:

Classic dessert recipes

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fruit dessert recipes

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