Lemon & Brown Butter Almond Madeleines

Sometimes, being a rogue baker pays off.

I’m impulsive when it comes to baking. I like to call myself a rogue baker because I often look at recipe ingredients for pastries I want to make and skip the instructions entirely, hoping I’ll figure it out along the way. I’m the type of person who will dump tons of chocolate chips into a recipe that doesn’t call for it, use brown sugar instead of granulated sugar, or use ube extract instead of vanilla. I always feel like a child molding playdough whenever I’m baking — it’s when I make the most mess in the kitchen and let my creativity run free.

This recipe is basically my unhinged version of the French classic. I used salted butter, which I browned until it smelled nutty and looked like dark caramel; brown sugar, which is a lot heavier and doesn’t work the same way granulated sugar does; and I’ve also combined all-purpose and almond flour, simply because I felt like it.

I love this recipe because it represents my baking style: messy, questionable, but somehow works. Sometimes, being a rogue baker does pay off.

Lemon & Brown Butter Almond Madeleines