2 kilos lemons and french madeleines

Isn't always a bless when one of your friends surprises you with a big bag of lemons, coming straight from a three in a garden somewhere near Valencia?

Well to me it is indeed one of the most exciting moments, already on the way home I was thinking what can be done with those gorgeous lemons…lemon cake, lemon cupcakes, lemon curd, lemonade.., the choices are endless and weekend was just around the corner. Naturally I could not wait till I could lay my hands on those lemons….

My son was as excited as I about this lovely gift… however his intentions were slightly different, he somehow confused them with balls and his eyes started to glow when he saw so many of them. There were some discussions and explanations, trying to make clear that those are for cooking and baking purposes only. By the end of the day one of the lemons needed to face the faith of the ball! The rest could be saved and needed to be hidden out of his reach.

While checking one of my favorites blogs (http://liebesbotschaft.blogspot.co.uk/) I was still thinking what shall I do with the lemons. Madeleines are my latest addiction, ever since I got the silicon form couple of month ago for an incredible price of 2,99 Euro, so it was clear we will have them for dessert...and then I saw this recipe of a drink, which caught my attention:

• 6-8 slices of ginger
• 1 lime cut in chunks
• 1 liter boiling water

Instead of limes I used of course the lemons and added 2 spoons of honey.The result was just lovely and fitted perfectly to the weather outside as well as to the madeleines…

What I really love about madeleines is that they are very easy and quick to do, there are tons of variations with different ingredients and they always look so gorgeous that everybody will compliment you on them. Till now I tried several variations already, always using the classic recipe as a base adding additional ingredients to vary the taste. Today however I stuck to classic french madeleine recipe and put some strawberries, clementines and melted dark chocolate aside, which went just perfect together and made quite a solid dessert for Friday….this was also confirmed by my son. 

• 130 g sugar
• 2 spoons of honey
• pinch of salt
• 3 large eggs
• 150 g all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 125 g butter (melted)
• zest of 1 lemon

Whisk together sugar, honey, salt and eggs till well combined and fluffy. Sift together flour and baking powder, gradually fold into the egg mixture. Gently stir in the butter and lemon zest. Cover and put into the refrigerator to get the batter cold. Preheat the oven 180°C. Butter and flour the form, divide the batter among the molds and bake for 10-12 minutes.

Enjoy!