What I especially love about these light little sponges is the elegance in their simplicity. These particular bites bare a hint of honey and lemon but adorn your own as you fancy. With your rindless lemons, it could be nice to try making a sugar glaze with the juice.

The batter is best left over night and when spooned into the mould it is already  evident from the aero-like texture these are going to be special. Great tea time treat and best still warm out of the oven, the ones that initially ‘got away’ will be frozen and given a new lease of life in my next trifle.

Ingredients Makes 24 Madeleines

• 120g of unsalted butter
• finely grated rind of 2 lemons
• 3 large eggs at room temperature
• 100g white sugar
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp honey
• 175g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder

Lemon Sugar 

• 40g icing sugar
• finely grated zest of 1 lemon

Method

1. Use a small saucepan to melt your butter gently, add lemon rind and set aside for 5 minutes or so until this cools to too temperature but still remains as liquid.
2. In a bowl, whisk together your eggs, sugars and honey with a pinch of salt until pale and fluffy (this takes about 5 minutes with electric mixers).
3. Sift over flour and baking powder and carefully fold through, trying to keep it as light as possible.
4. Fold in your butter in about 3 or 4 additions until just incorporated, cover with cling film and rest batter in fridge overnight (or for at least 4 hours).
5. Preheat oven to 180℃ and divide mixture between 2 12-holed madeleine moulds (dollop a spoonful in the middle of each hole, do not spread out).
6. Bake until golden, my first batch were slightly overdone so I took the second lot out after just 8 minutes and these were far better so careful not to overcook. Another tip is to ensure you have greased the holes very well as they are susceptible to sticking!
7. When baked, remove from tin and cool on a wire rack. Dust with a little icing and sprinkle of lemon rind.