These Easy GF Vegan Lemon Madeleines are simple to make. The lemon flavour and poppy seeds make this allergen-friendly treat extra special!
I’ve always wanted to bake beautiful madeleines. Have you tried? Creating such a recipe without gluten/wheat, eggs, dairy or nuts can be challenging.
A few weeks ago, after I saw Dora, a talented food blogger, post her gorgeous Madeleines, I thought it was time for me to give it a try!
I love testing recipes to work without any top allergens, and I knew this one would be a little tricky to recreate.
My mission was to make them as light as I could without gluten, eggs or dairy! Want to see how I did it? Keep reading to get all the details with a how-to video!
Easy GF Vegan Lemon Madeleines
Can you make Madeleines without wheat flour or eggs? Of course, you can!
The best way to veganize a baked recipe like this one is by making your gluten-free flour and starch blend. Doing so will help you create the best texture for this tasty treat!
How-To Video
Tools
You don’t need too much to bake this treat but having a madeleine pan will obviously be helpful. This is the inexpensive madeleine pan I recently purchased but I will try to upgrade to a better pan next time I find one.
If you don’t want to invest in a pan just yet just know that you could probably bake the batter in muffin a regular or mini muffin pan. Just don’t fill the cavities with too much batter, three quarters of an inch to one-inch is probably enough.
I even cooked some of the leftover madeleine batter like a pancake which was really yummy too!
Ingredients & Process
I tried my best to keep the list of ingredients as short as possible. I did try this recipe with a store-bought GF flour blend, but I was not too fond of the outcome.
If you can find GF oat flour, don’t you worry! You can buy certified GF quick oats or even large oats and mill them in a high-speed blender.
If you can’t consume GF oat flour, I included another version with almond flour/meal for people that can consume nuts. The brand I often use when testing recipes with almond flour is Good Eats by Pillings Foods. Another brand that seems similar in texture is this blanched almond flour by Anthony’s.
If you decide to try other alternatives than what I list in the recipe, I can’t promise that it will work. Always keep in mind that some blends of GF flours contain xanthan gum which I find often contributes to a weird texture.
As for the process, it’s pretty much as simple as mixing all the ingredients in one bowl starting with the sugar and vegan butter then adding the remaining ingredients. Read the important tips below.
Tips to Make Easy GF Vegan Lemon Madeleines
The best tips I can offer when making these GF vegan madeleines is to add the plant milk last. Doing so will give you control over the final texture of the batter. Please read the recipe’s instructions for the details.
And lastly, whisking the batter will help you achieve a smooth texture.
Decorating Your Madeleines
Decorating baked treats is the fun part so ask your kids to help you!
Once your madeleines have cooled a little, you can dust each one with some organic powdered sugar.
To make them extra special, you can add some decorations with a quick and easy icing made of organic powdered sugar and a few drops of plant-milk or water.
Transfer the icing to a little plastic bag and cut off a tiny corner to help you pipe lines or dots onto each madeleine. See the example below or watch the how-to video.
More GF Vegan Baked Recipes:
Previously on Fresh is Real
The last post on the blog was the updated Yeast-Free Gluten-Free Vegan Bread recipe refreshed with new photos. The recipe is still the same!
It’s a wonderful multi-purpose dough created a couple of years ago that you can bake into smaller loaves, rolls or even pizza crust(s).
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Easy GF Vegan Lemon Madeleines
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven-Baked
- Cuisine: Plant-Based, Gluten-Free, Vegan, Nut-Free, Allergen-Friendly
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
This gluten-free vegan madeleine recipe is easy to make. The lemon flavour and poppy seeds make this allergen-friendly treat extra special!
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup organic cane sugar (46g)
- 6 tablespoons vegan butter, gently melted (84g)
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1–1/2 tablespoon GF baking powder*
- 2 teaspoons poppy seeds
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 cup GF oat flour (100g)
- 1/4 cup arrowroot starch (30g)
- 1/4 cup potato starch (38g)
- 1/4 cup white rice flour (40g)
- 1/2 cup homemade GF oat milk (120g)**
Decoration (optional): organic powdered sugar
Instructions
Before you start, watch the short Gluten-Free Vegan Madeleines video tutorial.
Step 1 – Preheat your oven to 350° F. Grease each cavity of your madeleine pan with a little melted vegan butter.
Step 2 – To a mixing bowl, combine the sugar and gently melted butter (not hot) and mix. To the same bowl, add the lemon zest, lemon juice, GF baking powder, poppy seeds, sea salt and give it a quick mix. Add the flours and starches to the same bowl and mix a little more. Before adding the plant milk, read the tips below. Once you add the plant milk, whisk batter until smooth.
- TIP 1: Depending on if you are using GF oat flour or the almond flour/meal alternative, the total amount of plant milk could differ. For the GF oat flour version, I added the whole 1/2 cup of milk. For the almond version, this will be too much and make the batter too thin. Add the plant milk in increments in either version and only add enough to create a thick pancake mixture.
- TIP 2: For either version, you can refrigerate the batter until you’re ready to use it.
Step 3 – Fill each cavity to the edge; don’t overfill as it could overflow when baking. Proceed to bake in your preheated oven for 25 minutes.
Step 4 – Once the Madeleines are ready, take the pan out of the oven and let them cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Carefully remove the madeleines from the pan and finish cooling them on a wire rack.
Step 5 – Dusting the madeleines with organic powdered sugar is optional but makes them look nice. You can also combine a 1/2 cup of organic powdered sugar with 1/2-1 teaspoon of either water or plant milk to make icing. Mix the two to create a nice thick mix that you can then transfer and squeeze through a tiny cut corner of a plastic bag. Doing so will help you pipe some thin lines or dots onto each madeleine.
Notes
The Easy GF Vegan Lemon Madeleines are best enjoyed freshly made!
*GF baking powder ingredients: cream of tartar, baking soda, tapioca starch. I occasionally buy this GF brand by Purest and often made my own. GF Baking Powder recipe **I used homemade oat milk. To make oat milk you need about 1/4 cup of GF oats to 1 cup of water. Blend in a high-speed blender, pour and squeeze through a mesh bag to remove any larger bits.
SUBSTITUTIONS
(Please note I haven’t tried all these alternatives)
Sub organic cane sugar with coconut palm sugar or maple syrup sugar.
Sub arrowroot starch with tapioca starch.
Sub potato starch with arrowroot or tapioca starch.
Sub white rice flour with sorghum flour.
Sub GF oat flour with GF almond flour/meal if not allergic to nuts.
Hi Chantal, can you sub the oat flour with anything else- we also can’t have almond
View CommentHi Sarah, without oat or nut flour, the texture will change. You could try with an all-purpose GF mix, but the texture can be different depending on the flour and starch combo and if the mixture includes xanthan gum or not. There’s also tiger nut flour (not an actual nut flour) that could be considered to replace the option with nut flour, but I haven’t tested it myself. If you decide to experiment a little, let me know how it turns out.
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