Making Madeleines at A Taste of London with AEG

A couple of weekends ago we headed off to The Festive Edition of A Taste of London, held in partnership with AEG at Tobacco Dock. We'd cycled past the entrance a few times on our Tower Bridge route, but I'd not been in before. MOH had, and I was grateful for his advice to dress warmly, as a lot of Tobacco Dock is actually outside. There were plenty of people there, and things to do to keep warm, as well as some indoor spaces, and as you'd expect plenty to eat.
A taste of London at Tobacco Dock

We were excited to be part of the #TakeTasteFurther cookery sessions in the AEG kitchen. Kathy from Gluts and Gluttony led the session to make madeleines in just thirty minutes. Now not only does that seem a tall order, but as well as making them herself she was directing at least fifteen other pairs of cooks, and she had no idea of their cooking abilities, and to top that we also made a cardamom butterscotch sauce while we had some spare time. Seriously, it was impressive - and so were the results.

Kathy from Gluts and Gluttony leading the cookery class at A Taste of London
A silicone madeleine tray, now that makes perfect sense to me

1. A silicone madeleine tray on our workbench was a big clue for what we were making.

Meanwhile on the mixer I started beating the eggs and sugar the easy way

3. With MOH melting butter, I could get my hands on the AEG freestanding mixer, which I would happily have in my kitchen. Eggs and sugar went in and took no time at all to beat.

Adding the flour mixture to the eggs and sugar

5. First we added flour and ground almonds to the eggs and sugar, along with some orange zest, and carefully folded this in.

madeleine mixture spooned into the silicone tray

7. We piped the mixture into the madeleine tray. In all honesty this was the messiest bit, with a few "exploding" piping bags around the room. MOH, the baking perfectionist, wanted to wipe the dribbles but it was not to be!

A quick look at the other ingredients for the butterscotch sauce

9. While we waited for this to boil, I explored the other ingredients on the bench - cardamom, chopped pistachios and more butter.

Keeping an eye on the sugar syrup while it bubbles away

11. And still the water bubbled, until the sugar turned brown - and that's when you need to watch carefully, because it'll turn quickly.

The cooked madeleines were returned to our bench, next up decorating them

13. And before we knew it, our madeleines were back again, cooked and looking lovely. 

Getting started with the madeleines by melting butter

2. We started by melting butter, in fact you might have noticed I delegated that to MOH.

A squeeze of orange juice into the melted butter

4. While my eggs and sugar were getting fluffy, I still had time to direct MOH, and take some pictures too. Here's a squeeze of orange juice going into the butter he melted.

Adding butter and orange juice to the madeleine mixture

6. Then the orange juice and melted butter were also gently folded into the mixture. You'll notice MOH is working in these photos too.

Onto the caramel sauce, starting with the sugar and water

8. With the madeleines cooking, it was time to make the butterscotch sauce. We were both keen to see how this was done, as MOH had tried this at home, not altogether successfully. So water and sugar went into the saucepan...

Melting some chocolate directly in the saucepan on a low heat

10.  In preparation for decorating the madeleines I melted some chocolate slowly in a saucepan. At home I use the microwave...

And voila butterscotch caramel sauce - and quite a bit too - yum

12. Then MOH whisked in the butter, and then added the cream and cardamom and voilà, cardamom butterscotch sauce! Two tubs of it. 

A drizzle of chocolate and a sprinkle of pistachios, with a modern take on how we decorated ours

14. With a short amount of time to decorate, we went modern, with dribbles of chocolate and sprinkles of pistachios. 

And the final result, was some very moreish orange, pistachio and chocolate madeleines with cardamom butterscotch sauce. I'd never have thought it would be *that* easy to make them, but it was. And now I need a silicone madeleine tray of my own, so I can make plenty more! 

ORANGE, PISTACHIO AND CHOCOLATE MADELEINES WITH CARDAMOM BUTTERSCOTCH SAUCE, RECIPE BY KATHY FROM GLUTS & GLUTTONY BUT MADE MY MOH AND I IN 30 MINUTES...

ORANGE, PISTACHIO AND CHOCOLATE MADELEINES WITH CARDAMOM BUTTERSCOTCH SAUCE, RECIPE BY KATHY FROM GLUTS & GLUTTONY BUT MADE MY MOH AND I IN 30 MINUTES...

With madeleines made in record time, we left the kitchen and tried them out while planning our route through the rest of the show. Look out for more posts from the show soon.

* This is a collaborative post, and with thanks to AEG and Kathy from Gluts & Gluttony, as usual views are my own.