Lemon Elderflower Madeleines

There are a few ingredients that are quite foreign for me, and that only very recently I came across. Coming from a tropical country, I've always had plenty of passion fruits, mangoes, guavas and all these tropical flavors we know and love. However, berries, rhubarb, elderflower and all sorts of more tempered-weather ingredients were very hard to find (even lemons were a thing that I've only seen later in life -- limes are plenty though), if at all. So once I started travelling around the world and moved to colder temperatures, that's when all these ingredients were incorporated into my recipes and some of them into my everyday baking.

So every time I go to have a walk around the IKEA close to my house, I like to go to their food aisle and check whatever they have on their shelves. More often than not, I come back home with a small jar of elderflower syrup and lingonberry jam to use on my recipes.

I've used elderflower syrup in a couple ways already but have never seen the actual flowers (maybe I have, but didn't know what I was looking at...). I know you can use the flowers to make syrup, sorbet and a bunch of other stuff but they only come out later in the spring for a very short period of time, so I think the best bet is to use whatever you can grab that is already prepared.

Then a few weeks ago I was craving some madeleines and decided that the elderflower syrup I had at home could be put to use in the recipe somehow. Since it's a syrup and it could mess the proportions of the recipe up, I thought it would be best to make a simple lemon madeleine and use the syrup on the glaze to coat them. After all, lemon and elderflower is a great and refreshing combination so, why not?

I've made these to have a cup of tea with a friend who was visiting myself and Ben and I have to say they were absolutely delicious. And like all madeleine recipes, also very easy to make. The only thing you should note here is that the batter must be prepared at least 4 hours in advance (it's best to leave it in the fridge overnight though) in order to get those cute little bumps in the cakes.

For this batch, I've used a traditional but non-stick madeleine mold but you can most definitely use the ones made out of silicone or aluminium. If using aluminium molds, don't forget to butter and flour the mold before piping the batter.

Lastly, for the glaze you're basically looking for a consistency that is pourable but still somewhat thick (just so it sticks better to the cakes) just so you can dip the madeleines with the shell facing down before letting them dry. They are best if eaten in the day, but you can save any leftovers (I doubt there'll be any) in a airtight container for another day or so.