The cookies you should always eat fresh from the oven!

Lemon Madeleine Cookies

Prep Time: 40 minutes
Cook Time: 22 minutes
Servings: 20

Ingredients:

 

For the madeleines:

• 3 free-range eggs
• 2/3 cups of  sugar
• 1 and 1/2 cups of plain flour
• 10g/¼oz baking powder
• 1 lemon, finely grated zest only
• 1 and 1/2 Tbsps of honey
• 1/4 cup of milk
• 1 Tbsp of butter, melted and cooled
• 1 basket of raspberries
  2 Tsps of baking powder
• icing sugar, for dusting

For the lemon curd:

• 1 lemon, finely grated zest and juice
• pinch of salt
• 3 Tbsps of sugar
• 2 Tbsps of butter
• 2 free-range egg yolks

Directions:

1. Beat the eggs with the sugar until pale and frothy. Put the flour and baking powder into a separate bowl and add the lemon zest.
   
2. Mix the honey and milk with the cooled butter, then add to the eggs. In two batches, fold in the flour. Cover and leave to rest in the fridge for a few hours, or overnight.
   
3. Meanwhile, make the lemon curd. Put the lemon zest and juice, salt, sugar and butter into a small saucepan and heat gently until the sugar and butter have melted. Remove from the heat.
   
4. Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl, then add to the pan and whisk vigorously. Return the pan to a low heat and whisk constantly as the curd starts to thicken. Don’t stop whisking or the eggs will curdle (if the curd starts to boil, take off the heat). Once the curd thickens and releases a bubble or two, remove from the heat and pass the curd through a sieve into a bowl. Place cling film in direct contact with the curd and refrigerate for at least an hour, preferably overnight.
   
5. When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375F. Butter and flour a 12-shell madeleine tin. Put the lemon curd into a piping bag fitted with a small, pointed nozzle and place in the fridge.
   
6. Put a heaped tablespoon of batter into each madeleine shell and press a raspberry deep into the batter.
   
7. Bake for five minutes and turn the oven off for one minute (the madeleines will get their signature peaks), then turn the oven on to 325F and bake for a further five minutes. Transfer the madeleines to a wire rack and leave for a few minutes until cool enough to handle. Meanwhile, wash and dry the tin, then repeat the baking as for the first batch.
   
8. While the second batch is baking, pop the piping nozzle into the mound in each baked madeleine and squirt in a teaspoon’s worth of lemon curd. Repeat with the second batch, then dust with icing sugar and serve straightaway.