Maple and Pecan Madeleines | SU2C Bake Off Technical Challenge

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Many you might have recently been watching the Stand Up 2 Cancer (SU2C) Celebrity Bake Off specials and seen these done for the Technical Challenge: Prue’s Maple and Pecan Madeleines. Madeleines are little French sponge cakes and these ones specifically are flavoured with toasted pecan nuts and maple extract. The madeleines are then dipped into dark and decorated with white chocolate to finish them off!

What do you need to make these Maple and Pecan Madeleines?

These maple and pecan madeleines are certainly not made with store-cupboard ingredients in a matter of minutes like some of my other recipes are. In terms of ingredients, you will need pecan nuts (which are quite expensive) and the original recipe (you can find that here) also calls for maple extract. I bought the extract from a company called Foodie Flavours which cost me 6 pounds, but to be fair the flavour is quite strong and I suppose the bottle will last me a while now.

You will also need a few bits of “fancy” equipment to make these maple and pecan madeleines, starting with the obvious: A madeleine tin. I bought this one from Masterclass which is quite good in terms of quality. I really like the tin, however, the annoying thing is that it needs to be stored somewhere and also the only thing you can use it for is to make madeleines! In addition, you will also need an electric hand-held or free-standing mixer as the eggs and sugar need to be whisked to ribbons stage, and I’d say that’s pretty impossible to do as an average home baker.

Check out the video here:

How do you make these Madeleines + Recipe Improvements

These madeleines aren’t overly difficult to make, however, there is a lot of cooling and resting time in between things that mean it takes quite a while to make them. The pecan nuts need to be toasted and cooled, the butter needs to be browned and cooled, and the batter needs resting before baking, too. And as the recipe makes 18 madeleines but the tin only fits 12, it means you need to wash and re-grease the tin in between baking batches, too. So it definitely takes a while! But I suppose it is a technical challenge….

I would also suggest changing the original recipe slightly to add more pecans to the actual sponge mix, as I feel you don’t need as many to decorate as it says. Also I found it annoying that the recipe makes 18 madeleines rather than only 12 which the tin would fit in one go. I would need to fiddle and experiment with the below recipe first to find the right quantities to make only 12 for convenience. But until I do that the below recipe will still make enough batter for 18 Maple and Pecan Madeleines!

Other Bake Off Technical Challenges

I am absolutely obsessed with the Great British Bake Off and have challenged myself to attempt all of (or at least the ones that are “realistic” – I won’t be making pitta breads on a camp fire in the back garden!) the technical challenges from the programme! I have tried quite a few already, so make sure you check out some of the other recipes and see how I got on!

• Mary Berry’s Religieuses
• Mary Berry’s Fraisier Cake
• Paul Hollywood’s Hand-raised Chicken, Bacon and Apricot Pies
• Mary Berry’s Bakewell Tart with feathered Icing
• Paul’s Mini Pineapple Upside Down Cakes
• Mary Berry’s Frosted Walnut Layer Cake
• Paul Hollywood’s Cottage Loaf
• Mary Berry’s Homemade Jaffa Cakes
• Paul Hollywood’s Wagon Wheel Biscuits
• Mary Berry’s Victoria Sponge Cake
• Paul Hollywood’s Mini Pork Pies
• Mary Berry’s Viennese Whirls
• Prue’s Vegan Chocolate and Raspberry Tarts (S2UC Special)
• Pizza Star Bread (Junior Bake Off)
• Mary Berry’s Coffee and Walnut Battenberg Cake
• Paul’s Crusty White Cob
• Paul Hollywood’s Rainbow Bagels
• Prue Leith’s Malt Loaf
• Paul’s Jammy Biscuits
• Paul Hollywood’s Olive Ciabatta Bread Sticks with Homemade Tzatziki
• Prue Leith’s Sticky Toffee Puddings with Sesame Tuiles
• Prue Leith’s Prinzregententorte
• Paul Hollywood’s Baklava (22cm)
• Paul’s Caramel Biscuit Bars (Twix)
• Prue Leith’s Vegan Sausage Rolls
• Prue’s Sablé Breton Cake
• Paul Hollywood’s Sticky Belgian Buns
• Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Icing
• Prue’s Garibaldi Biscuits with Feathered Chocolate Icing
• Paul Hollywood’s Pain au Raisins
• Paul’s Spicy Beef Tacos
• Paul Hollywood’s S’mores
• Prue Leith’s Pistachio Praline Ice Cream Cones
• Vegetable Spring Rolls
• Prue’s Vertical Chocolate, Hazelnut, and Raspberry Tarts
• Paul Hollywood’s Devonshire Splits

Maple and Pecan Madeleines | SU2C Bake Off Technical

Recipe

Ingredients:

FOR THE MADELEINES

• 100g pecan nuts
• 100g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing the tin
• 5 drops maple extract (I used this one)
• 100g caster sugar
• 2 medium eggs
• ½ tsp baking powder, sifted
• 100g plain flour, sifted

TO DECORATE

• 100g dark chocolate (either 54% or 72%)
• 50g white chocolate

YOU WILL ALSO NEED

• 12-hole madeleine tin (I have this one from Masterclass)
• Silicone pastry brush
• Electric hand-held or free-standing mixer
• A small piping bag or freezer bag
• Cocktail stick

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/170°C fan and place the pecan nuts on a baking tray. Once hot, toast the nuts in the oven for around 5 minutes, turning half way through, or until they smell toasted. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool and turn off the oven.
2. In a small pot, carefully melt the butter over a high heat until it starts to brown but be careful not to burn it. Add in the 5 drops of maple extract then set the butter aside to cool, too.
3. In the meantime, melt a little extra butter and use a silicone pastry brush to lightly grease the madeleine tin with butter. Then place it in the freezer for the butter to harden.
4. On the nuts have cooled, set aside roughly 30g of nuts and roughly chop them for decorating, then finely chop the remaining nuts and set aside for the madeleine batter.
5. Place the eggs and caster sugar in a large bowl and whisk for 5-10 minutes until the mixture is thick, foamy and pale in colour. The mix should reach the “ribbon stage”, meaning it leaves a trail at the top of the mix when you first lift the whisk from the batter (see my video for a visual).
6. Next, sift together the flour and baking powder in a small bowl, then carefully tip it down one side of the bowl with the eggs. Then pour the cooled butter down the opposite side of the bowl. Use a large metal spoon or spatula to carefully fold in the butter and flour until there are no more streaks and the batter is smooth.
7. Finally, fold in the chopped pecans you reserved for the bater until evenly distributed throughout, then set aside for 20 minutes to rest.
8. Once again, preheat the oven to 190°C/170°C fan.
9. When the 20 minutes are up, remove the madeleine tin from the freezer and spoon a table spoon of the mix into each hole. There is no need to spread the mixture out evenly, it will do so by itself in the oven.
10. Bake the 12 madeleines in the oven for 8-10 minutes or until lightly golden and the edges are starting to brown. Leave to cool in the tin for 2-3 minutes, then carefully remove them from the tin and place them ridged-side up onto a wire cooling rack.
11. Quickly wash and re-grease the tin with butter and place in the freezer for 10 minutes. Repeat steps 9 and 10 with the remaining batter to make a further 6-7 madeleines.
12. Leave the madeleines to cool completely on the wire rack.
13. To decorate, break the white chocolate into pieces and place in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water to melt. Once it has melted completely, carefully spoon the chocolate into a small piping bag and set aside.
14. Next, roughly chop the dark chocolate and place it into the heatproof bowl (you can use the one for the white chocolate, no need to wash it) and gently heat until completely melted. Then pour the dark chocolate into a small ramekin or pudding mould to make it easier to dip the madeleines into it.
15. Carefully dip the top third of the madeleines in the dark chocolate and place them back on the cooling rack. While the dark chocolate is not yet set, snip a small corner off the piping bag with the white chocolate, and pipe the thin lines of chocolate across the madeleine. Then drag a cocktail stick through the chocolate, first in one direction then the other to create a feathered pattern.
16. Finally, sprinkle the reserved chopped pecans onto the ends of the madeleines. Wait for the chocolate to set completely before serving.