Lemon Madeleines

What a week! Coming straight off of Yom Kippur.... it was Shabbat again! I love Shabbat a lot and it usually takes me a while to plan what I'm making in her honor.. but this time, I didn't have that luxury. Although it was a given that I'd make challot, I didn't have any clue as to what sweet treat would grace the table. I had started making a tea cake but that flopped in the oven. Yes, we all have our bad days. But when my mother asked me what we would be having and got no response, I thought, I can't possibly let her down! So it was back to square one. I noticed that I had been running out of flour and that all I had to work with was a box of cake flour. The first thing that came to mind was madeleines! I had the pan that my mother bought me and had never used. I ran upstairs to find a recipe and came upon this Lemon Madeleine recipe from Martha Stewart's Cookies. It seems lately, there's just something about lemon... This first attempt at madeleines-- or shells, as everyone in my family has taken to calling them- were picture perfect. They had that nice, cute little bump on the back, too. Moist, delicate, dainty and delicious, with intense lemon flavor, these were the perfect light treat to end Friday night dinner. This recipe makes twenty four.

Lemon Madeleines
from Martha Stewart's Cookies

1 1/2 cups cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs
2 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp lemon zest
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 sticks melted margarine or butter

Sift together the dry ingredients and set aside.
Place the eggs, sugar, vanilla, zest and juice in the bowl of your mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium high until pale and thickened, about five minutes. Mine never quite got that way, but it's ok.
This is what I ended up with. Mix in the melted margarine or butter.
Gently fold in the dry ingredients and allow the batter to rest for 30 minutes. Toward the end of this resting period. preheat the oven to 350. Grease two madeleine tins, or if you only have one, you'll have to work in batches, like I did. No big deal though.
This is the completed batter.
Here's my pan. I don't know why I never used it before...
Here's the batter spooned into the pans,
nicely baked and beautiful.