Classic Canelé de Bordeaux

I won’t deny it, I’ve been lazy. Surrounded by news of the raging fires in Australia and global outbreak of the Corona virus, I just lost my energy for the usual cycle of everyday life and decided to escape into the world of fantasy novels.  But I’m slowly getting back into things. So, to start off this post I just wanted to put up a disclaimer. Whilst I call this recipe that of a “classic” Canelé de Bordeaux, it isn’t truly classic/traditional. Mainly because I did not bake them in copper moulds nor with beeswax. But now that that’s out of the way, let’s continue to the actual post. 🙃 These little custardy caramelised rum and vanilla scented Canelé are beyond adorable and addictive. And like the many things that are fleeting in life, these little gems whilst crunchy at the start, they tend to lose their crisp lustre after a few hours out in the open. After many many tries, I finally managed to find a recipe that held the custardy to crunch ratio that I wanted with a longer lasting crisp. Now, I used individual non stick canele molds that I had purchased from Japan for these as I can’t afford copper molds. (Anyone want to sponsor me with some? :P). These non-stick molds aim to duplicate the traditional shape of the copper ones and are lighter in colour than your usual non-stick pan ones. If you are interested in seeing me test out the molds, I have filmed that in the video that I will add down below to this post. To keep things short and sweet, here are some bakers notes:

• It is necessary to allow the batter to rest for at least 24hrs but ideally 48hrs. This allows the flour to hydrate, the gluten to relax and for the flavours to mingle and meld together as it ages.
• I used butter rather than beeswax out of ease but also because it doesn’t actually affect the final product from what I am able to discern.
• When buttering your moulds, keep the layer of coating thin as you do not want the oil to rise and pool as it bakes which will affect the internal crumb.
• Rule of thumb to remember, darker mould usually bake faster than lighter ones so you will need to adjust your temperature accordingly.
• The shape of your moulds also matter, slimmer thinner moulds will also bake faster so you might want to reduce the timing of your bakes.
• Whilst it may be tempting to eat these fresh out of the oven, please please please let them cool. They are hot and it will burn you, but more importantly, letting it cool will give the crust a chance to firm up and cool down. It might take around an hour for them to cool down, but I do recommend waiting that 1 hour.
• These are easy to make but are truly a love project. The traditional moulds are costly, it will take days for the batter to chill and rest in the fridge, it takes an hour for it to bake, it needs another hour to cool…. and all of this is probably going to make you question why you are even making this, but it is worth the wait in my mind 🙂
• If you do not wish to use a mix of all purpose and bread flour, you can definitely use just all all purpose flour.
• I whisk these by hand as per the video but if you wish you can also use a blender for ease and to speed up the process by blending on low to reduce the chance of working the gluten in these.
• You want to reduce the risk of incorporating too much air into your batter, and if you use a blender, you will increase the chance of that happening. If there are any foam, I recommend removing most of it before storing it in the fridge.
• I bake these on a baking steel to ensure that the temperature of the oven doesn’t drop too drastically when I place the moulds in the oven to bake and to ensure that the Canelés are also getting close contact heat from the baking steel to reduce the chances of a pale bottom. If you do not have a baking steel, you can definitely use a baking stone (pizza stone) or you could even just use a baking tray.
• These are best consumed within a few hours out of the oven, but they can be kept for up to 3 days in an air tight container. To crisp up the crust, place it back into the oven for 5-10 mins just to heat up the crust and dry it out.

Makes approx 11 What you’ll need

• 500g full fat milk
• 35g unsalted butter, cut into 1″ cubes
• 240g white sugar
• 75g ap flour
• 50g bread flour
• 30g whole egg (egg whisked well before being measured out to 30g)
• 50g egg yolks
• 5g vanilla bean paste (substitute with 2 tsp vanilla extract if you wish)
• 20g rum

Making it! Heat the milk and butter together in a pot over low heat until it reaches 80C. Be sure to stir to ensure the butter melts before the milk reaches the 80C point. In a seperate bowl, whisk sugar, egg and egg yolks together until combined. Slowly pour the milk into the egg mixture to gently increase the heat of the mixture so as to reduce the chance of scrambling the eggs. Sift the flour into the egg mixture in 3 batches whisking to incorporate between additions. Don’t worry if there are lumps as we will be passing this through a strainer. Be careful not to overwork your batter. Add the vanilla bean paste and rum and give it a final whisk. Pass the batter through a strainer twice to ensure that you have removed all the flour clumps by pressing the flour clumps back into the mixture with the back of your spatula. You want a silky smooth mixture but are not trying to remove the flour itself from the mixture. (refer to the video for visual reference) Cover and store in the fridge for 48hrs. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 220C with a baking steel in the oven (refer to notes above). Butter your molds with melted/softened butter ensuring you have a light coating. Pour 80g of batter into each mold. Mine takes 80g but if yours are smaller you might have to reduce it. Place into the oven and bake at 220C for 18 mins, reduce heat to 180C and bake for a further 45-50 mins until the caneles have a deep deep bronze colour. When ready, remove from the oven, tip the caneles out of their molds and let cool on a wire rack for at least an hour until it comes to room temperature. Enjoy! 🙂

Products used in my kitchen:

Kitchenaid  Infrared Thermometer: https://amzn.to/2TInxrR

Equipment Used

Camera: https://amzn.to/2WXrMlj Mic: https://amzn.to/2XodlpD Lens: https://amzn.to/3cZg5QT

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