Madeleines (updated)

While I love Ramsay's opium-flecked variant of this French cupcake, it's my gently almond-scented version that does it for me at the moment. It eliminates the clutter of seeds in the recipe, and without the muscular chef's influence, I'm happy to leave the strenuous egg-whisking to my new, and gorgeous, Kitchenaid stand mixer.
These make a delicious continental breakfast, and since you have to leave the batter to rest for at least 2 hours, it makes sense to grease the tin and make the mixture up the night before, then leave it covered in a batter jug in the fridge. The next morning you need only preheat the oven, pour the mixture into the shell-shaped cups and make a jug of coffee while they bake. Please know that I haven't renounced the recipe I fell back on over 18 months ago, and you'll find it in its original prose (where I harp on about the Madeleine's significance to Proust's literacy) underneath, but right now I'm drawn to where it's most simple, so see below.

2 eggs
75g caster sugar
100g unsalted butter (plus an extra tbsp for greasing)
100g plain flour (plus an extra tbsp for flouring)
1/2 tsp almond extract

Melt the unsalted butter in a diddy saucepan and allow to cool, although to be honest you could probably do this while the eggs are whipping- it can take a good 10 minutes for them to reach their volume. To grease the tin, take your madeleine tin or failing that a muffin or Yorkshire pudding tray and use the extra butter to grease it with a pastry brush. Sieve over the extra spoonful of flour then tap off the excess into the sink.
Crack the eggs into a mixing bowl and add the sugar. Whisk them together for as long as it takes for them to become voluminous and thick- it resembles, oddly, mayonnaise when it's finished. Sieve the flour into the bowl and fold it in, followed by the melted butter and almond extract.
Leave the batter to rest for at least 2 hours, but if you're making this the night before cover with clingfilm and chill in the fridge.
Pour around 1 tbsp of mixture into each madeleine cup, before baking in a 180 degree oven for 10-15 minutes. You know you've succeeded if you have a small, slightly suggestive lump in the centre that the French refer to as the nipple. Leave to cool for a brief few minutes before tapping the edge of the tin to free the little cakes. Cool on a rack, or serve warm.

The great Gordon Ramsay has taken somewhat of a hold on my cooking. It's a shame that his extremely foul-mouthed and furious reputation has clouded what he truly is- a fantastic chef. Although his explanation is a bit more curt and frank than another celebrity chef like the great Nigel Slater, his episodes are comprehensive and provide easy recipes and slightly more challenging ones. This recipe, for me, is in the intermediate category, but for anyone who isn't as useless at cake baking these are an easy.

Madeleines are beautiful, shell-shaped cakes from France, usually eaten for breakfast with some coffee, although there's a case for eating these as an equivalent to a coffee and amaretti biscuits after an Italian meal (but of course, make it a French meal here). They're perhaps most famous for the role they played in Proust's epic novel exploring how memories are accidentally triggered- madeleines are a truly evocative cake as you will see. Ramsay used lemon and poppy seed, but I'm all about the blood oranges, which I'm stocking up on in the freezer before they go out of season because their flavour is just sublime, much better than a regular orange which are all water and no zestiness. If you don't have a madeleine tin, and why should you, they're not exactly the most versatile of tins, then just use a small muffin tin. I won't go near mine though, whenever I see it in the cupboard I scowl and telepathically tell it that it has no purpose in life.

1)You could do this with an electric mixer, but when I saw Gordon doing it in just a few minutes with a balloon whisk, I felt like my masculinity would be compromised if I didn't do the same. It took a bit longer to get three eggs and 80g caster sugar to a pale and very thick consistency, like a slightly tarnished soft meringue, about 20 minutes for me? But I swear my left bicep has increased in size since.
2)Sieve in 80g plain flour and 3/4 tsp baking powder, and fold in with the zest of one blood orange and 1 tbsp poppy seeds until smooth. Folding is a gentle process, but you must be forceful with your actions, don't fold it so lightly nothing combines well.
3)Down the side of the bowl, pour in 75g cooled melted butter (unsalted) and fold that in thoroughly.
4)Set this batter aside overnight in the fridge, so you get delicious light madeleines the following morning, although make them right away if you want, but make sure the next two steps are done in advance of baking them.
5)Spread melted butter throughout a madeleine tin, then sieve in some plain flour, tap the tin so any excess flour comes out.
6)Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius.
7)Decant the mixture into a jug and pour equal (well, equal-ish) blobs of batter (that has been allowed to come to room temperature) into the tin, then bake for 10 minutes or so, until golden and risen. If you've done well, then a good mound, 'nipple', should have formed on the top of the madeleine. Turn them out, and serve warm.