May 21, 2010: This recipe has been revised. See the genoise discussion in the Chocolate Gotta-Have-Heart Cake for details.
[ Equipment: slow cooker, oven or steamer. For more information about the terminology in this recipe, see Low Temperature Baking: A Journey of 3 Paths ].
March 11 is Johnny Appleseed Day. Johnny Appleseed (aka John Chapman) traveled the American frontier in the early half of the 19th century, planting apple seeds as went. He was a nurseryman, a conservationist, who cared deeply for the land and the creatures living on it. To celebrate Johnny Appleseed Day, I made a remembrance cake, the madeleine, a French tea cake, the taste of which triggered an epic trip down memory lane in Marcel Proust's novel "A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu" (In Search of Lost Time). I gave the cake an American inflection by infusing it with quinessentially American flavorings: maple syrup, peanuts and (of course) apples, and by shaping it in outline as an apple. In accord with cooking methods of that time, I created both slow-baked and steamed madeleines.
The classic madeleine is made from a Genoise or sponge batter with an egg foam leavener. I have made a few Genoise batters, and I can't imagine doing it without an electric mixer. Egg foam is nothing more than eggs whipped until they're thick with air bubbles. Genoise cakes baked at low temperatures may not rise very much, because the cake may set before the air bubbles can fully expand and lift the batter. If the egg foam batter was saturated with air bubbles, the cake will still be very light. Baking powder could boost the rise, but is a form of cheating to baking purists in this type of cake.
The base recipe is Jacques Torres' Classic Genoise. From that starting point, I reduced the proportion of flour to liquid to lighten the load for the egg foam. I substituted the cake flour in the original recipe with all-purpose flour and cornstarch, totalling 1/4 cup. For a denser cake, add more flour and cut back equally on the cornstarch. Butter is a significant ingredient in many genoise recipes (up to a ratio of 1/2 cup of butter per cup of flour), so I introduced a little butter into the Torres batter for flavor without too much fat. The individual egg yolks and honey were replaced with applesauce, maple syrup and yogurt for flavor and to give the cake moistness. The finely ground peanuts stand in for the almond essences in traditional madeleines.
These madeleines can be steamed or baked. In the steamed cake, the delicate apple and maple flavors are distinguishable and the cake has a firm, chewy texture. However, the caramelization on the baked cake intensifies the sweetness and melds the apple and maple flavors. The baked cake has a firm interior with a crunchier surface and sides.
In the above pictures, the madeleine on the left was dry-steamed in an aluminum foil pouch. The squished look was achieved by pressing the sides of the foil pouch inward, thereby distorting the silicone mold. The cake on the right was slow-baked. Although baking occurs at a higher temperature, steaming heats the batter faster, so that the outer portion of the cake solidifies while the inner continues to rise. Thus, the baked madeleine has a flat top from even rising, but the steamed madeleine has a convex top or a hump, like madeleines baked at high temperatures.
Genoise cakes have a drier texture than other cake types. One way to add moistness is to soak the cakes in a syrup after baking. Madeleines are somewhere between a cake and a cookie, and can be enjoyed without syrupy enhancement. Served while warm, these apple madeleines are soft and light and dissolve quickly in the mouth, leaving behind just a few grains of peanuts. Cakes that have been sitting out too long can be restored by putting them in the microwave for 15-20 seconds.
Makes 4 apple madeleines
-95 calories/apple madeleine
-Oven Temperature: 250°F/121°C or steamed
- 1 large egg
- 1/8 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons maple syrup, grade A dark amber
- 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
- 3 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon butter
- 2 teaspoons applesauce, unsweetened
- 2 teaspoons plain yogurt
- 1 teaspoon finely ground lightly-roasted peanuts
- confectioner's sugar and cocoa powder for dusting
1. Thoroughly mix together the flour and cornstarch in a small bowl and set aside. The cornstarch is there to lighten the flour. To make a denser cake, add more all-purpose flour and take away an equal amount of cornstarch. The reverse will make a lighter cake. Be careful about the extremes. Too much all-purpose flour could collapse the egg foam. Too much cornstarch and the cake will set up as a crunchy mass of egg foam.
If available, cake flour can be substituted for the all-purpose flour and cornstarch.
2. Put butter and applesauce in a small bowl and heat in a microwave on low until butter is melted. Mix in plain yogurt. The consistency of the applesauce and yogurt will vary by brand and type. Both should be slightly watery. If they are too thick, mix in a few drops of water to thin them out, so they do not collapse the egg foam.
The yogurt and applesauce will hold the butter in a suspension at room temperature, but try to keep the mixture warm until needed, so that the butter stays liquid. Any chunks of butter in this mixture could collapse the egg foam.
3. Put the egg, sugar, vanilla, maple syrup and salt in a heatproof bowl and whisk until frothy. I used a grade A, dark amber maple syrup, which is in balance with the other flavors. For a stronger maple presence, add more syrup (and cut back on the yogurt), try a stronger-tasting grade B syrup, or add a bit of maple extract.
4. Bring a saucepan with water to a simmer and place the heatproof bowl over the saucepan. Monitor the temperature of the mixture with an instant-read thermometer. Stir the mixture until it reaches a temperature of 100°F/38°C. Heating the mixture will help it hold more air when it's whipped.
5. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and whip the egg foam with an electric mixer on HIGH speed until the batter turns a pale yellow and batter dripped from the beater forms a ribbon that is visible for about 2-3 seconds (about 3 or 4 minutes, depending on the speed of the mixer).
6. Put the egg foam back over the simmering water and continue beating. Monitor the temperature of the batter carefully. When it reaches 110°F/43°C, remove the bowl from the saucepan and continue beating until a ribbon dripped from the beater stays visible for at least 15 seconds. It will reach this ribbon stage very quickly, within 2 or 3 minutes, once the batter is fully heated.
7. Sift a small portion of the flour mixture over the batter and fold in with a spatula or large soup spoon.
8. Drip a portion of the butter-applesauce mixture along the edge of the batter where it meets the bowl. Fold the butter and applesauce into the batter. Do not add the butter and applesauce mixture directly into the batter or it could collapse the egg foam.
9. Repeat steps 7 and 8 until both mixtures are completely incorporated. If the butter-applesauce mixture is too thick to keep the batter adequately hydrated, mix a few drops of water into the butter-applesauce mixture to thin it out a little. A batter that is too dry will collapse the egg foam.
10. Grease the apple cake molds and sprinkle grounds peanuts into each of the molds. I tried folding the peanuts into the batter, but that caused the batter to collapse. Although Tovolo silicone molds are supposed to be pumpkins, in silhouette, they resemble apples. For reference, each mold holds 3/8 cup.
11. Carefully spoon batter into the molds. There should be enough batter to fill each mold 3/4 full.
12. For steaming: The cakes can be wet-steamed, but I recommend dry-steaming for the best result. Wrap each mold in a foil pouch (with room for expansion) or place the molds in a tall pan (such as a springform pan) that will fit the steamer and cover the top of the pan with foil. Bring the steamer water to a rolling boil. Reduce heat to a medium boil. Place molds in steamer and steam for 12 to 15 minutes if foil-wrapped, longer if the molds are housed inside another pan. Skip to step 16.
13. For slow baking: If baking in a large cooker, put the molds on trivets so that they don't touch the bottom of the crock. The trivets in the top image above are made from rolled up aluminum foil. I have also tried putting the molds on a small baking sheet, elevated by a wire stand or a heatproof bowl underneath. In the second image above, the baking sheet is really the bottom of a springform pan. The wire rack holding up the baking sheet isn't visible.
Shown above is a way to bake the cakes in a smaller 1.5-quart cooker. Two madeleines can be stacked in the small crock with the aid of a homemade wire rack. These cakes are delicate, so if they will be stacked, I recommend putting a strip of aluminum foil around the lower pan so that it doesn't bake faster than the upper pan. Additionally, the stacked pans should be aligned in the same direction, so that they bake evenly.
For more information about the homemade trivets and wire racks, see Low Temperature Baking: A Journey of 3 Paths ]
14. Cover the top of the cooker with paper towels and put on lid. This step is not necessary for oven.
15. Bake until the surface of the cakes is a light golden brown and the edges are lightly browned, about 50-60 minutes. Test the cakes by inserting a toothpick or wood skewer in the center of one. It should come out clean, excluding any surface moisture. Turn the oven or cooker off. If the cakes have any surface moisture, allow them to dry off in the oven for another 10 minutes. (For a cooker, replace the lid without the paper towels and tilt the lid to vent moisture.)
16. Remove the madeleines and cool.
17. Unmold and dust the top of each cake with cocoa powder or confectioner's sugar.
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