Madeleines with Strawberry Sauce

Moist, sweet madeleines and fresh strawberries, served with a drizzle of vanilla custard sauce.  

Madeleines:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
3 eggs, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract

Sift together dry ingredients.  Set aside.

In mixer, beat eggs and sugar until thick and increased in size, three to five minutes.  Add extracts and beat to combine.

Fold in flour, do not overmix.  Add a small amount of batter to butter and mix well, then slowly fold butter mixture into batter.

Chill for about an hour.

Oven at 375 degrees.  Butter and flour madeleine pan.  I used a miniature madeleine pan.  Fill the molds (about 3/4 the way full, leaving the mound in the center) and bake until golden around the edges and springy to the touch.  My minis took between seven and ten minutes.  When you remove them from the oven they should come out of the molds easily.

Strawberry Sauce:
5 strawberries
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 vanilla bean, seeds

Dice strawberries quite small.  Mix with sugar and seeds from the vanilla bean.  Cover with plastic wrap and microwave for a minute.  Let sit in refrigerator until chilled.  Best served after chilling a day or two, but still good otherwise.

Vanilla Custard Sauce
3 egg yolks
3/4 cup half and half (it was what I had, you can use a cream/milk mixture also)
1/2 tbsp water
1 vanilla bean, seeds separated
2 tbsp sugar

Whisk egg yolks and sugar until frothy on top.  Heat remaining ingredients in a saucepan until it is almost boiling.  Whisk hot cream mixture into eggs, then return all to saucepan and heat, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula.  Heat until it is a loose custard, about 1-2 minutes.  Let cool to room temperature, then chill.

Serve with the sauces and enjoy!