Full question
Made the Rosebud Madelienes for the first time yesterday, however the recipe states will make 48 but I barely got 18. I don't understand why as followed quantities exactly. I also wanted to adapt these to chocolate madeleines, so would melted chocolate or cocoa powder be best and when would they be added?
Our answer
Nigella's Rosebud Madeleines (from HOW TO BE A DOMESTIC GODDESS) are tiny, bite-sized sponge cakes that are delicately flavoured with rosewater. The sponge mixture is baked in miniature madeleine pans and the indentation of these pans can vary in size, so this could be one reason why the yield is slightly different. Also the teaspoon mentioned is a 5ml spoon (from a measuring spoon set) and should be level, so again if a different sized spoonful is used you may get a different number of cakes.
Adapting sponge recipes can be difficult and it is probably easiest to substitute some of the flour for unsweetened cocoa powder. We would suggest trying reducing the flour to 35g and adding 10g cocoa powder. However cocoa powder absorbs more liquid than flour and may affect the texture of the finished cakes, making them slightly dry. As we have not tried this substitution ourselves we are unable to guarantee the results.
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