Madeleines are cookies baked in a special shell-shaped mold pan. You can find the pans in very large and very small mold sizes. I love this kind of cookies and buy a huge box of them every time my boyfriend and I shop at Costco. He is a big fan of these cookies as well. According to The French Cookie Book by Bruce Healy, the varied shapes of the Madeleine cookie family come in shell, ovals, gem pans, turbans, barquettes and tartlet shapes. I was looking for a Madeleines long time ago but could not find a good one. This Black Friday, I found one from Le Gourmet Chef store with nice material and very reasonable price. I ended up trying this recipe on Black Friday night and got 12 lovely Madeleines that tasted so wonderfully.
Madeleines are great for tea pastry cookies, and since they are decorative are nice for dessert buffets for your holiday events. The traditional shell-shaped cookies are known for their distinctive 'humps' on the opposite side of the shell decoration. Look for this in all Madeleines since when served the humps are usually up, except when pictured above for the benefit of the shell shape. Here are the humps that I am talking about:



Ingredients:
2/3 cup all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon orange extract
3/4 stick butter, (6 Tablespoons) unsalted, melted and cooled
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting (optional)

Directions:
1) Combine together the flour, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl and stir well with a spoon.

2) Working in a mixer bowl, or in a large bowl, add sugar and then add the eggs to the bowl. Working with the whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat the eggs and sugar together on medium-high speed until pale, thick and light, 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in the orange extract.

3) With a rubber spatula, very gently fold in the dry ingredients, followed by the melted butter. Fold gently with the spatula to combine and finally attain a smooth mixture.

4) Butter a 12 full-size madeleine molds, or up to 36 mini madeleine molds, dust the insides with flour and tap out the excess. Or, if you have a nonstick pan (or pans), give it a light coating of vegetable cooking spray (Spray is what I used). If you have a silicone pan, no prep is needed. Spoon the batter into the molds, filling each one almost to the top and smooth out the surface.

5) Press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the batter and refrigerate it for at least 3 hours, or for up to 2 days (the wrap should cover the whole mold). This long chill period will help the batter form the hump that is characteristic of madeleines.

6) After refrigerate the batter long enough (3 hours latter) preheat oven to 400 degrees F for 10 minutes before you bake. Then, bake the cookies directly from the fridge. Bake large madeleines for 10-13 minutes, and mini ones for 8-10 minutes, or until they are golden and the tops spring back when touched.

7) Remove the molds from the oven and release the madeleins from the molds by rapping the edge of the pan against the counter. Gently pry any stubborn madeleines from the pan using your fingers or a butter knife. Transfer the cookies to a rack to coolto just warm or to room temperature.
If you are making minis and have more batter, bake the next batch(es), making certain that you cool, then properly prepare the pan(s) before baking.
Just before serving, dust the madeleines with confectioners' sugar (optional)