Soft buttery sponges with a succulent and sticky texture. These super delicious honey madeleines are made with white chocolate and flavoured with thyme. They’re really quick to make, so perfect for feeding unexpected guests.
As soon as I chose honey for this month’s We Should Cocoa, I’ve done nothing but dream of honey bakes. I love honey and if money was no object I’d use it instead of sugar almost exclusively. As well as the flavour, honey has a lot of health benefits which are not found in sugar.
When I saw that Classic French this month was for madeleines, my mind immediately moved to how I could incorporate honey and chocolate into these delicate little French cakes. I currently have two jars of New Zealand Honey to try out. Whilst I like the woody notes of the 10+ pre-biotic Beech Forest Honeydew, I thought the more floral notes of the 10+ antioxidant Thyme Honey would work better here.
Honey and Thyme Madeleines
Right until the last minute I was going to grate some milk chocolate into the mix which I thought would give a pretty speckled look. However, I wanted a hint of thyme to shine through and I thought this would be better achieved with white chocolate.
I’d spotted a recipe for Honey Madeleines in a recent book I was sent for review purposes, Stacie Bakes. I thus ended up using it as a base, but I adapted it quite heavily.
These are by far and away the most delicious madeleines I’ve made yet. The honey is, perhaps not surprisingly, the predominate flavour. But as well as tasting delicious, the honey also gives the sponges a succulent and sticky texture which is just delightful.
White chocolate work really well in bakes and although there’s no obvious flavour, it gives these honey madeleines a certain body and je ne sais quoi. They’re very different without it. Duck eggs are also fabulous for baking. I used those rather than hen’s eggs, which is why the sponges are such a glorious yellow.
I used lemon thyme rather than standard thyme. This along with cardamom sugar, which I also used, combined to give a soupcon of citrus to the proceedings.
As well as the distinctive shell shape, a classic madeleine should have a “foot”. Thankfully these honey madeleines had the required foot. However, in my short madeleine making career, I’ve not so far had a problem with this.
You could, of course, dust the sponges with icing sugar. But in this instance, I thought they were quite pretty in their yellow and brown livery, so I left them au natural.
How Long Will Honey Madeleines Last
Unlike most madeleines that really need to be eaten as soon after baking as possible, these improve with age and become stickier and even more scrumptious. They will keep in a sealed container at room temperature for three to four days.
Strangely, this didn’t prevent us from tucking in immediately.
Other Madeleine Recipes You Might Like
- Chilli chocolate madeleines
- Matcha madeleines: green tea and lemon sponges
- Spicy chocolate madeleines
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make these honey madeleines, with or without the thyme, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
For more delicious and nutritious recipes follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest. And don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to my weekly newsletter. Or why not join the conversation in our Healthy Vegetarian Whole Food Recipes Facebook Group?
If you’d like more honey recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious, of course.
Choclette x
Honey Madeleines. PIN IT.
Honey and Thyme Madeleines – The Recipe
Honey and Thyme Madeleines
Ingredients
- 50 g unsalted butter
- 50 g white chocolate chopped
- 2 tbsp honey (I used thyme honey)
- 2 large eggs (I used duck eggs)
- 50 g golden caster sugar (I used cardamom sugar)
- 75 g unbleached plain flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp fresh thyme (I used lemon thyme) finely chopped
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a small pan over low heat.
- Turn off the heat, add the chocolate and honey and stir until melted.
- Beat the eggs and sugar together until thick, pale and tripled in volume. Electric beaters are best for this.
- Pour the chocolate mixture gently down the side of the bowl and fold into the egg mixture as gently as possible.
- Sift in the flour and baking powder.
- Finally fold in the thyme.
- Spoon into 16 silicone madeleine moulds, or floured tin moulds and bake in the middle of the oven at 180℃ (160℃ fan, 350℉, Gas 4) for ten minutes.
- Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Sharing
It goes without saying that I’m entering these honey madeleines into my very own We Should Cocoa.
I’m also submitting them to Classic French with Jen of Blue Kitchen Bakes. She’s chosen Madeleines as this month’s theme.
I adore herbs and use them a lot, both in my cooking and for medicinal and cosmetic purposes, but I rarely pair them with chocolate. Turns out lemon thyme works really well. It’s a rare event, however, that I am able to enter Karen’s excellent Herbs on Saturdays and I’m always a little bit excited when I can do so.
You never know I might just win a book. This month’s book sounds especially good and right up my street. It’s cooking with edible flowers by Miriam Jacobs. I’m crossing fingers.
Thanks to the New Zealand Honey Co. for sending some of their delicious honey to try. Thank you for your support of the brands and organisations that help to keep Tin and Thyme blithe and blogging.
Rebecca says
Thanks for the challenge! We love madeleines so I’ll have to try this recipe too.
Karen S Booth says
Beautiful entry for Herbs on Saturday and stunning little Madeleines too…..as always I LOVE your flavour combinations!Karen xx
Christian Halfmann says
Those madeleines sound very intriguing with this honey and thyme in it. I imangine them to be very delicious. I tend to use thyme quite often, because it’s growing so well in the garden … in fact, massively. Too bad only, I don’t have any madeleine moulds.
Kath says
I love that WSC is at no 32! Well done. Your madeleines look so fluffy and delicious. I very much like the sound of the honey.
Kitchen Butterfly says
I loveeeee the flavours, and Madeleines are some of my absolutely favourite things. In fact a couple of months ago, I baked various combos every other day! Very nice
The Caked Crusader says
I love honey too and dream of keeping bees one day. YOur madeleines looks heavenly
Garden Tea Cakes and Me says
Love the sound of these with the addition of the thyme – making Madeleines for this challenge reminds that I should bake them more often.
Angela
Jen Price says
I’m really intrigued by this combination as I love honey but don’t tend to do much with it apart from drizzling it on my porridge! The texture of your madeleines looks really light and fluffy, so thanks for entering into Classic French this month 🙂 (can you add to linky please)
Caroline says
They look delicious Choclette – love the idea of combining honey and white chocolate with thyme. I need to get on and think of a honey entry – I love it enough to eat it by the spoonful…. the difficulty is getting as far as baking with it!
Johanna GGG says
I’d been looking forward to your WSC entry – I love honey too and this blog event has made me want to do lots of baking with honey. When I was looking at honey and chocolate recipes I thought that honey and white chocolate would be too sweet so I am really interested to see you chose to use them together. I think honey really improves the texture of a cake so am not surprised to hear that you found these madeleines had a lovely texture – they sound scrumptious to me
Susie @ Fold in the Flour says
They sound absolutely lovely. The flavour combination is great and the texture looks like it’d make you just want to sink your teeth into one. 🙂
lapin d'or says
Looking great Choclette, honey, thyme, cardamom and chocolate , love them all.
Susan says
These look amazing, love anything with white chocolate…I need to buy a madeline pan though 🙂
Janice Pattie says
ooh I was thinking of making honey madeleines for Classic French, will see if I have time this weekend, might find a way of including chocolate too, now I’ve seen yours!
Angie Schneider says
These madeleines sound and look fantastic! Duck eggs must have made these little treats really special.
Stacy says
I love madeleines in all their forms. I think the honey is a great addition!
Charlotte Charlotte'sKitchenDiary says
These sound delectable Choclette. Your method of making them is quite different to ones I have tried before, so I will be giving these a go next time I bake them. I think madeleines make a wonderful bake – delicious little cakes which last for a few days (with a little self- restraint!)
Choclette says
Ah yes, self-restraint – what’s that? Thanks Charlotte, They did turn out to be quite different to the previous ones I’ve made and I thought much nicer. The only ones I’ve ever eaten though are the ones I’ve made myself, so I’m not entirely sure what they should be like.