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I’ve made some Canelés today. It’s a traditional pastry for the Bordeaux region. They have strong rum and vanilla flavors, the outside slightly crusty and caramelized while the custardy inside stays soft and firm.
The recipe is quite simple and the cooking process can be equally simple if you have the right equipment, namely, copper molds. These specialized molds can be quite expensive (around 10 € a piece), but copper is unmatched in terms of heat distribution. This means that you end up with a uniform dark golden crust while keeping the inside soft and moist.
If you are doing this recipe for the first time, or you don’t want to invest in copper molds, don’t worry, I came up with a method to get similar-ish results with just silicone molds. I cook them in the molds until the exposed part turn golden brown, unmold them and finish cooking them upright in an improvised bain-marie (so that the bottom part doesn’t burn on the baking tray). More details below.
Ingredients
- 500 ml whole milk
- 50 g salted butter
- 250 g unrefined brown sugar (we call it Cassonade in France)
- 125 g all-purpose flour
- 2 whole eggs + 2 egg yolks
- 75 ml dark rum
- Some vanilla extract (or one vanilla pod)
Molds
The quantity of Canelés you can make depends on the size of the molds you are using:
| Mold | Diameter | Amount of mixture | Expected quantity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small | 35 mm | 28 g | 36 |
| Medium | 45 mm | 50 g | 25 |
| Large | 55 mm | 87 g | 16 |
In my opinion, the small ones doesn’t provide enough volume to get a good textual contrast between the outside and the inside. It it particularly noticeable when using copper molds. By the time the outside is caramelized, there isn’t much moist inside left.
The large ones, aka traditional size, produce Canelés with the entire spectrum of textures. The downside is that the crust to volume ratio is lower, which is a shame considering how good the caramelized crust is.
Ultimately, I decided to invest on medium-sized copper molds.
Preparation
- Pour the milk (500 ml), half of the sugar (125 g), the vanilla (extract or scraped contents), and the salted butter (50 g) in a saucepan. Let the temperature slowly rise to roughly 60 °C and stir from time to time.
- In a big bowl, put the flour (125 g) and the rest of the sugar (125 g). Mix together and make a well in the center.
- Beat the 2 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks in another bowl.
- When the milk in the saucepan reach 60 °C, stop the heat, place the beaten eggs in the well, and pour about a third of the hot milk in the well. Gently mix with a whisk until homogenized.
- Continue to pour the rest of the hot milk while gently mixing. Stop when the mixture is homogenized. You can keep the wisk in the bowl.
- When the temperature drops to around 30 °C, pour the rum (75 ml), gently mix once again.
- Let it cool down completely and then place in the fridge overnight.
- The next day, preheat your convection (aka fan-assisted) oven to 240 °C.
- Some form of “skin” may have formed on the surface of the mixture during the resting phase. You can use your wisk to homogenized the mixture again.
- Butter the molds (oil is fine too), place them on a tray and fill the molds to about 2/3 of their volume. It’s important to not overfill them because the mixture will expand when it’s in the oven. They could end up with irregular shapes and make a mess otherwise.
If you have still some mixture left, either fill any over-safe molds you have available. Alternatively, you can also keep the mixture in the fridge and use it as a fancy custard sauce to dip your Canelés in. Canelé²?
Baking
Copper molds
- When the oven has reached 240 °C, place the tray in the middle of the oven for 8 minutes.
- After 8 minutes, without opening the oven, turn down the temperature to 180 °C and continue baking for another 30 minutes.
- Optional: mid baking, turn the tray 180° if your oven is prone to irregular baking (hotter and colder spots)
- Remove from the oven, unmold them and let them completely cool before eating.
Silicone molds
- When the oven has reached 240 °C, place the tray in the middle of the oven for 8 minutes.
- After 8 minutes, without opening the oven, turn down the temperature to 180 °C and continue baking for another 50 minutes.
- Meanwhile, prepare a bain-marie (water bath). Place a small deep baking tray inside another deep tray. Fill the larger tray with water until to smaller one starts floating.
- Optional: mid baking, turn the tray 180° if your oven is prone to irregular baking (hotter and colder spots)
- After 50 minutes (or until the visible part of the pastries turn to a dark golden color), remove them from the oven, unmold them and place them in the floating deep tray. The lesser cooked part of the Canelés (the part that wasn’t visible when in the molds) should be facing up.
- Place the bain-marie in the middle of the convection oven. Turn up the heat to 220 °C.
- Continue cooking until the outside takes a nice uniform dark golden color. If the inner deep tray stops floating, pour some extra water until it floats again.
- Remove from the oven, let them completely cool before eating.
Serving
I would recommend to wait at least 6 hours before serving them so that the crust softens slightly. Regardless, feel free to eat one or two in the meantime, after they have cooled down.
Gallery
Sources
This recipe ingredient list is mostly based on this recipe by La Toque Cuivrée.
The steps are inspired by a magazine article, but I cannot put my hands on it anymore. But the general idea is well documented online.