Chinese Five Spice & Burnt Blood Orange Madeleines

1. 1

   First, preheat your oven to 375.

2. 2

   Beat together the eggs, egg yolk, and sugar in your stand mixer.

3. 3

   Zest your orange, and use a kitchen torch to lightly burn the zest. This stuff tends to spark up quick, so give it light, one to two-second bursts of heat. When you see embers, blow them out, and repeat. Basically as long as you don't have a smoldering pile of garbage on your hands, you're doing ok.

4. 4

   Mix in the vanilla, burnt orange peel, and orange juice.

5. 5

   Whisk together the salt, flour, and five spice in a small bowl, then mix it into the rest of the batter just until blended together. Don't over-mix this stuff, people: air bubbles are bad news here.

6. 6

   Put the mixer on low, and slowly pour in the melted butter until it's all mixed in.

7. 7

   Spoon the batter into a madeleine pan (yes, you need one of those...obviously) that you've sprayed with non-stick. It's a little tough to get it in there evenly, but if you use a spatula you should be ok. Just try and spread the batter as flatly as possible, or else you'll have weird, misshapen seashell cakes instead of slightly more normal-looking seashell cakes.

8. 8

   Stick them in the oven for about 16 minutes until they get nice and golden brown. Let them cool for 5, then take them out of the pan.

9. 9

   Once they're cooled completely, all you have to do is dust them with some powdered sugar and you're set.

* Per serving · 4 servings · Values may vary.