I have all sort of obsessions. Postcards, big, snuggly scarves, notebooks… And the biggest of them all, cakes.

Add to that my most recent obsession, stone fruits, and here’s what you get: Traditional vanilla madeleines with spiced plum compote.
A treat I can garantee will become a staple in my house come Autumn. It is a bit of work (mainly because you most likely won’t cook all your madeleines in one batch) but the second I dipped my first madeleine into the still-slightly warm plum compote, I knew it was actually time perfectly spent.

For the madeleines

Ingredients: 3 eggs, 125g self-raising flour, 140g sugar, 135g butter, 5 cL milk, 2 teasp runny honey, 2 pinches sea salt, 1 vanilla pod, 1 tsp vegetable oil

1. Melt the butter and keep aside until cool

2. In a bowl, whisk the eggs with the sugar, honey, salt and vanilla seeds until it gets fluffy.

3. Add in the oil and the flour and mix thoroughly.

4. Pour in the butter and the milk and whish until thoroughly combined.

5. Cover your bowl with cling film and let it rest in the fridge for 2h.

6. Preheat your oven at 250 °C.

7. Fill the madeleine moulds with the batter (don’t over-fill them!).

8. Lower the oven temperature to 220°C and bake the madeleines for 5 min. Lower the temperature again to 200°C and cook a further 7-9 min.

For the plum compote

Ingredients: 5 purple plums, 1/2 teasp coffee spice (2/3 cinnamon, 1/3 nutmeg), 1 teasp vanilla powder, 2 tsp runny honey

1. In a small pot, cook all your ingredients until the plums are soft enough to be pureed with a fork.

2. Pour in a heat-resistant container and let it cool down a bit before serving.