blood orange, walnut and browned butter madeleines

After being blown away by the intense flavour of the hazelnuts I bought directly from the grower in Tasmania, I set out to try and find some equally fresh walnuts here in Sydney. A local fruit and vegetable store had a big sack of walnuts in their shells, I was so excited to find them I forgot to ask when and where they'd been harvested. I shelled half a bag, and roasted them, for the madeleines below. The flavour was definitely superior to the walnut halves I buy from the supermarket, but not the revelation of fresh Tassie hazelnuts! Lucky blood orange season tempered my disappointment. 

I love these madeleine trays, and because I know someone will ask, they came from Japan, so sorry! I'm lucky to have a friend who regularly visits Japan, and generously ferried a tray back for me, twice! There's a similar tray here, but so far I've resisted purchasing...

blood orange, walnut, and browned butter madeleines

15g melted butter, for greasing the tray
2 tbsp flour, for flouring the tray
155g caster sugar
155g butter
80g flour
80g walnuts
3 jumbo eggs (approx 200g)
zest of 1 blood orange

• melt the butter over a gentle heat, keep heating until the butter turns golden brown, and smells gorgeously nutty with hints of caramel, remove from the heat, pour into a bowl and set aside to cool
• put the walnuts and flour into a food processor and blitz until the nuts are finely ground, set aside
• put the eggs in the bowl of a stand mixer if you have one, if not use a hand held electric mixer, add the sugar and whip until super pale and thick
• gently fold the walnut flour through the egg mixture
• add the blood orange zest and melted butter, fold until combined
• cover the surface with plastic wrap and refrigerate for somewhere between 2 hours and overnight
• when you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 180ºC
• generously butter your madeleine tray, dust with flour, turn upside down and tap on your bench to remove the excess
• using a piping bag, pipe the batter into the tray, filling each shell 3/4 full, if you don't have a piping bag use a couple of spoons
• bake in the centre of your oven for 15 minutes, the madeleines are cooked when their edges are golden brown and crisp, and spring back when lightly pressed in the centre
• madeleines are best eaten when just barely warm, but if, like me, you love blood orange and all things pink, make the icing below, dip the cooled shells in, then gently place on a cooling rack until the icing has set

• makes 18 regular sized madeleines

icing

125g icing sugar
juice of 1/2 blood orange

• sieve the icing sugar into a small bowl
• gradually add the blood orange juice until you have a thick icing, you want it to just drop off your spoon, slightly looser than a paste (why is it so difficult to describe the consistency??)
• use immediately