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Nadiya Hussain’s Treacle Anise Madeleines with Grapefruit Syllabub

Nadiya Hussain's rich, treacle madeleines are glazed in chocolate and served with a grapefruit syllabub for dipping. As featured on her BBC2 series Nadiya Bakes.

From the book

Nadiya Hussain

Introduction

Madeleines used to be my favourite as a kid, when our local Asian supermarket sold them for 89p a bag. Inside each bag, tumbled amongst one another, were these wonderfully scalloped, slightly dimpled golden cakes. I had to stop myself eating the whole bag in one sitting, but when you’re one of six kids, you do have to move fast! Madeleines are so simple to make and my version is sweet and treacly, darker in colour than the classic ones, with a tiny edge dipped in chocolate, and I also make a zesty grapefruit syllabub to dip them into.

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Ingredients

For the madeleines:
2 medium eggs
100g soft light brown sugar
1 tbsp treacle, plus a little extra for decoration, to decorate the syllabub
¼ tsp star anise – you can buy this ground or grind a load up yourself
100g plain flour, sifted, plus extra for dusting
1 tsp baking powder
100g unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus extra for greasing tin
150g dark chocolate, melted and cooled
For the syllabub:
300ml double cream
50g caster sugar
zest and juice of ½ a grapefruit

Essential kit

You will need: an electric hand whisk and a 12-hole madeleine tray.

Method

Start by making the madeleine mixture. Add the eggs, sugar and treacle to a bowl and whisk until the mixture is light and fluffy. This should take 5 minutes using an electric hand whisk.

Now add the star anise, flour, baking powder and melted butter and mix through till you have a smooth cake batter. Set this aside and leave for 20 minutes, uncovered.

Meanwhile you can be getting on with the syllabub. Add the cream and sugar to a bowl and whisk until the cream begins to thicken.

Now add the zest and juice of ½ a grapefruit and whisk until the cream comes to stiff peaks. Transfer into a serving dish, cover and now the syllabub can go in the fridge until you’re ready to eat.

Now preheat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6.

Grease the inside of a 12-hole madeleine tray, lightly flour and tip out any excess. You want to make sure all the little grooves are covered – this will just ensure the cakes pop right out of the mould.

If you don’t have a madeleine mould, you can use the inside of a shallow fairy cake/jam tart tin, greasing and flouring the same way, or you could use mini tartlet tins, again greasing and flouring as before.

Drop just enough mixture into the cavity so it is about ½cm shy of the top.

Repeat this with all 12 and bake in the oven for 8–10 minutes, until you have a little dimple that’s risen on top and they are a medium golden brown.

As soon as they are out of the oven, leave them in the tray for 10 minutes. With the leftover batter, keep making more until you have no mixture left.

Leave them to cool, which shouldn’t take long.

Have ready a sheet of baking paper large enough to place all the madeleines on.

When they have cooled, dip a corner at an angle encasing just a third of the madeline into the melted chocolate, and pop onto the baking paper for the chocolate to set. Repeat with the rest.

Serve the madeleines alongside the chilled syllabub, giving it a drizzle of some extra treacle before eating!

Best eaten as soon as the chocolate sets or will keep in a tin for 2 days.

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From the book: Nadiya Bakes

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