These chocolate peppermint madeleines will steal the show on your holiday cookie plate! This traditional French cookie is tweaked with cocoa powder and peppermint extract making these deliciously chocolatey and minty. The final delicate, cakey and moist cookie is dipped into white chocolate and sprinkled with crushed peppermint candies.
What are madeleines?
Madeleines are a French cookie (or some argue cake). They do have a cake-like texture and are a light texture. The French apparently eat these with coffee or tea in the mornings or afternoons.
They do require a special madeleine pan to bake these little beauties. The pan is what produces the fluted edges on one side. A well-baked madeleine will have a signature hump in the middle of the cookie on the other side.
For a true madeleine, you have to use the pan. I have this pan and I would highly recommend buying a non-stick one to make your life easier!
Preparing the pan so the cookies don't stick
I tested a few different methods of preparing the pan recommend by various sources.
- I first tried brushing the madeleine cavities with melted butter and then freezing the pan for 10 minutes before piping the batter into the pan.
- Second, I brush melted butter into the cavities but then sprinkled cocoa powder (you could also use flour but because these are chocolate the cocoa powder blends in more) into them and tapped out the excess.
- The third method was the easiest. I just sprayed the pan with cooking spray and called it a day.
I'm happy to report that all methods resulted in madeleines that easily slid out of the cavities. However, the easiest and less messy method was just spraying the pan. If you have a non-stick pan, then just go for this method and you should have madeleines that don't stick at all.
If you don't have a non-stick madeleine pan, then I would recommend either doing the first or second method above just to make sure they slide out well.
Tips for perfect madeleines
Madeleines can be a slightly finicky cookie to make. Follow these steps to ensure your chocolate peppermint madeleines will be perfect!
- Sift your ingredients: I'm not always one to follow all the rules and sometimes sifting is a step that gets stepped when I'm baking (shhh!). However, to make sure you don't have any lumps of cocoa powder, make sure you do a quick sift of the dry ingredients together.
- Melted and cooled butter: The last step of making the batter involves adding the butter. For this recipe, we are using melted butter. You don't want to add piping hot just-melted butter to the batter so melt your butter first so you have time for it to cool.
- Beating the eggs and sugar: Some madeleine recipes don't have any leavening adding and just rely on whipping air into the eggs and sugar and then very carefully folding the flour so you don't deflate all the air. While that technique is fine, there is not a lot of room for error. I've added ½ teaspoon of baking powder to assist with the rising process and help create those signature bumps in the middle of the cookie. However, you still want to whip the eggs and sugar together until they are very light yellow, airy and form ribbons when lifting the beater out of the mixture. This should take about 5-8 minutes in a stand mixer. Doing this but also adding a small amount of baking powder will give you those perfect madeleines.
- Use a piping bag for the batter: This is a rather thick batter and I found that putting the batter in a zip-top bag and snipping the corner (or a piping bag if you have one) and then piping the batter in each madeleine cavity is easier than spooning the batter in. I did smooth out the batter with the back of a spoon in the picture below but found that it didn't matter so skip that step!
- Chilling the batter: After piping the batter into the pan, chill the pan(s) for about an hour. This helps the flour absorb into the liquid and aids in getting that signature bump in the middle.
How to decorate the madeleines
These chocolate peppermint madeleines get their holiday flavor from a little peppermint extract added to the batter. Going one step further, they are dipped into creamy white chocolate and then sprinkled in crushed peppermint candies.
Here's how to get picture-perfect madeleines. Melt the white chocolate first. I like to use a glass pyrex type container to melt the chocolate. Try to use a two cup or less container as you want to be able to dip the cookie about halfway into the chocolate.
If the container that you microwaved the chocolate is wider than tall, transfer the melted chocolate into a cup so you have enough height to dip the cookie.
First, chop the chocolate into little pieces (pro tip- use a serrated knife to chop a chocolate bar-it's so much easier!).
Microwave the chocolate for 30 seconds and then stir it. Microwave again for another 30 seconds and stir again. I needed about an additional 20 seconds to finish melting the chocolate completely.
Once your madeleines are completely cool, dip the top half of the madeleine into the melted chocolate making sure to coat the front and back of the cookie. Place the dipped cookies onto a wire rack. Sprinkle the crushed peppermint candies over the melted chocolate making sure to do so before it dries.
How to store the madeleines
The chocolate peppermint madeleines are best eaten within 1-2 days. Store them in an airtight container with layers separated by wax paper or parchment paper.
Can they be frozen?
Madeleines are best eaten in the first day or two however they can be frozen. Freeze the cookies either before or after they are decorated. Place the completely cooled cookies into an airtight container or a zip-top bag and freeze. They will be good for about 1 month. Let them sit on the counter at room temperature to thaw.
For more cookie recipes, check out:
- Apple Oatmeal Cookies
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
- Salted Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Lemon Crinkle Cookies with White Chocolate
Tag me on Instagram @themarblekitchenblog if you make this and leave a review and comment below! Thanks and enjoy!
Chocolate Peppermint Madeleines
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 large eggs
- ⅔ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon peppermint extract
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter melted and cooled
- 6 oz white chocolate chopped
- Peppermint candies crushed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. If using a non-stick madeleine pan, spray with cooking/baking spray. If not using non-stick, brush with melted butter and then coat each cavity with flour or cocoa powder and shake off excess.
- In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Set aside
- In a stand mixer with the whisk attachment or medium bowl and hand mixer, beat eggs and sugar on medium high for about 5-8 minutes. They should be light yellow and form ribbons when lifting the batter up.
- Beat in the vanilla extract and peppermint extract until combined.
- Add the dry ingredients and beat on low until just combined, with some streaks of flour still visible.
- Slowly pour in the melted and cooled butter and mix on low until fully incorporated.
- Use a piping bag or ziptop bag with the corner cut off to pipe each madeleine cavity about ¾ full of batter.
- Chill the filled pan(s) for about an hour in the refrigerator.
- Bake about 7-10 minutes until puffy and the lightly springing back when touched. Cool in the pan for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Once cooled, melt the chopped chocolate in the microwave in 30 seconds intervals, stirring after each interval, until it’s fully melted.
- Dip the end of each madeleine into the melted chocolate and then sprinkle with crushed peppermints.
- Allow to cool on a wire rack and then store in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
Notes
- Madeleines will last 1-2 days stored at room temperature in an air-tight container.
- Adapted from Epicurious.
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