CHOCOLATE DIPPED PISTACHIO MADELEINES

Contrary to my last post about cutting out cakes and sweet stuff, and focusing more on a healthy diet, here is a recipe for chocolate-dipped pistachio madeleines! Even though I am not technically eating cake at the moment, I still love baking. So on Monday night I suddenly had an urge to bake, but as it was 9pm I needed something that wouldn’t take too long. I immediately thought of madeleines as they only take about 10/15 minutes in the oven and they’re very easy to prepare.

I must admit, when they came out of the oven, the aroma of warm sponge was too much to resist and I had to try one. It was delicious. Soft, spongy, light and nutty with the zing of lemon in the background. In this instance, as I had quite a lot of chocolate in my cupboard, I decided to dip the madeleines in melted chocolate. Then I noticed a packet of pistachio kernels and thought…f*ck it! So I chopped them up and dipped the madeleines in those too! Ooooof, I’m so glad I did…these tased amazing. Somehow I managed to show some restraint, and took the remaining 23 madeleines into the office the next morning.

This recipe makes 24 madeleines.

INGREDIENTS
200g butter, melted
170g plain flour
100g pistachios
200g golden caster sugar
2 large eggs, separated
zest of 1 lemon
30g dark chocolate
30g milk chocolate

Heat oven to 200ºC/180ºC fan/400ºF/Gas mark 6, then grease madeleine moulds with butter.

Chop the pistachios in a food processor and grind until fairly fine but with a bit of texture.

Next, sift the flour and add it to a large bowl. Add some the pistachios (keeping some aside for dipping later), the lemon zest and sugar and stir to mix through.

Place the melted butter and egg yolks in a separate bowl and mix together.

Whisk the egg whites in a separate clean bowl until they form soft peaks. Fold the butter mixture into the dry ingredients, then fold in the egg whites.

Simply spoon the mixture into the madeleine moulds and bake for 12-15 mins until golden and firm to the touch.

Cool for a few minutes in the tin, then turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water. (I like to add a little squeeze of Golden Syrup to my chocolate, as well as a tiny pinch of salt.)

Once the madeleines have cooled, dip the tips into the melted chocolate, about a third of the way down. Then dip into the reserved chopped pistachios and then put aside to set.

I actually wedged each one into my dish rack as it was the only way I could get them to stand up and avoid the chocolate smudging.