LEMON & VANILLA MADELEINES

Melt the chopped butter in a small saucepan over high heat and cook until nut brown (this will happen quickly, so don’t take your eye off it!). Take it immediately off the heat and set aside.
Sift the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a medium sized bowl.
In a separate small bowl, whisk the egg with the milk (you may find as I did that it needs a touch more milk in order to make the batter less thick and gluggy). Pour this into the flour mixture and whisk until just combined (you’ll want a large whisk as the mixture easily clogs), then add the vanilla seeds and whisk just to combine (try not to over-whisk).
Gradually pour in the browned butter and whisk well, then finally whisk in the lemon zest.
Allow the mixture to rest for 30-60 minutes in the refrigerator.
Preheat the oven to 180°C (360°F).
Brush softened butter into the madeleine moulds, coating well (if you’re worried that your cakes will stick, you can also sprinkle over flour and shake out the excess).
Spoon level tablespoons of mixture and place the mound of mixture into the middle of the madeleine moulds (don’t spread or level out the mixture) and bake for about 12 minutes, or until golden (they should just be turning slightly browned at the edges).
Tap the madeleines out of the moulds (you may need to use a palette knife to loosen the edges) onto a rack to cool briefly.
You can brush over some melted butter and dip in caster sugar (or lemon sugar) if desired.