Strawberry Jam Madeleines

Back in college, I used to bake stuff for all my friends on their birthdays. Really simple things, mainly — cakes from a box with canned frosting, and giant bag-mix cookie cakes were my specialty. If I was feeling really fancy, I’d bust out puff pastry sheets, slice some strawberries, melt chocolate, and make “fruit tarts”.

Sadly, that was about the extent of my baking abilities at the time, so when my friend Spencer told me one day that he wanted madeleines for his birthday, my reaction was something along the lines of “Uhhhhhhh….huh?” First of all, I had no idea what madeleines were, and second of all, once I did figure out what they were, I couldn’t afford to order the proper baking tins. Very sad, all around. I think I made Spencer a cookie cake and fruit tarts that year…

Thankfully, I’m a much better baker now. And, as you can see, I have a madeleine pan! It’s a shame that Spencer lives in Japan now, ‘cuz I could totally make him some madeleines for his birthday…Oh well! More for me.

Strawberry Jam Madeleines (Adapted from Tarte du Jour’s recipe)

Ingredients:
– 2/3 cup sugar
– 3 large eggs
– 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
– 1 stick butter or margarine, melted
– 1 cup all purpose flour
– 1/4 cup cornstarch
– 1/2 tsp baking powder
– 1/4 tsp salt
– Red food coloring
– Strawberry jam for filling
– Powdered sugar for dusting

Steps:
(1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a madeleine pan.
(2) In a large bowl, mix sugar, eggs and vanilla with an electric mixer for about 4 minutes.
(3) Add melted butter, and keep mixing until batter is frothy. Set electric mixer aside.
(4) In a separate bowl, stir together flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt.
(5) Gradually add dry ingredients to the batter and mix well with a rubber spatula.
(6) Add 3-4 drops red food coloring to the batter, and mix until color is uniform.
(7) Spoon about 1 tbsp batter into each shell cup in the madeleine pan.
(8) Add about 1/2 tsp strawberry jam to the center of each madeleine. Cover with batter.
** Don’t use too much jam — it’s heavier than the batter and will just sink to the bottom of your baking pan. Each madeleine indentation should only be about 3/4 full.
(9) Bake for 8 minutes.
(10) Turn madeleines out onto a cookie sheet to cool.
(11) Dust with powdered sugar, then enjoy with coffee or tea!