Canelé de Bordeaux

Zeus (@ZeusJustZeus)

Yield: 12 canelé

Time: 24-48 hours

Materials

Whole-fat milk (500 mL)

Whole vanilla beans (2, substitute 2 tbsp. good vanilla extract)

White caster sugar (200 g)

All-purpose flour (100 g)

Melted butter (50 g)

Large egg yolks (2)

Good quality dark rum (4-5 tbsp., more for stronger rum flavour)

Beeswax (40 g)

Butter (60 g)

Procedure

1. Prepare the batter 24 hours (48 for an even better texture, up to 4 days) hours before you plan to bake canelé (see SI-1)

2. Put the milk in a saucepan. Meanwhile, slit the vanilla bean lengthwise, scrape the beans and add both the pod and the beans into the milk. Gently heat the mixture to a simmer but do not let it boil.

3. Once the milk is simmering, turn off the heat and set it aside to let the vanilla infuse the milk.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk sugar and egg yolks until the sugar is dissolved and the colour has turned light-yellow.

5. Add the melted butter and mix until just combined.

6. Remove the bean pods from the milk and carefully add the milk little by little into the egg mixture to properly temper the eggs (adding too quickly will cook the eggs and you’ll end up with scrambled eggs). Once the egg has been properly tempered, add the rest of the milk mixture and mix well.

7. Add the flour and gently stir the mixture just until the flour is hydrated. Do NOT overmix. Lumps are fine; leave them be.

8. Add the rum and stir gently just until it is fully incorporated into the mixture.

9. Rest the mixture at r.t. for 15 minutes.

10. Pass the mixture through a strainer and push all the lumps through with a spatula. Give the strained mixture a final and gentle stir before refrigerating.

11. Important. Refrigerate the batter for at least 24 h (48 h if you have time and/or patience)

12. When ready to bake, melt the butter and beeswax in a small saucepan.

13. When melted, pour the wax/butter mixture into your mould of choice (see SI-6) to the brim and immediately emptying it to ensure a thin but even coating (Figure 2). Turn the moulds over a cooling rack with paper towel underneath to catch any drippings. Once the coating has solidified, put in the refrigerator until ready to use.

14. Take the batter from the refrigerator and give it a gentle stir with a spatula. The mixture will look like it has separated, don’t freak out, this is how it’s supposed to look like. Just mix it and it’ll be fine.

15. Preheat the oven to 260 °C (500 °F, gas mark 10, or 290 °C/550 °F if your oven can go that high, see SI-2)

16. Fill the moulds with batter leaving 1 cm of space from the top (Figure 3).

17. Place the moulds on a baking sheet and bake the canelé in the hot oven for 10 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 190 °C/375 °F and continue baking for 45-50 minutes until the exposed tops are dark brown (it’s supposed to be quite dark, or bien cuit).

18. Remove the canelé from the oven and immediately turn out the moulds using tongs on a cooling rack upside down. They should just slide right out because of the wax/butter mixture. Set your moulds aside and do not submerge them in water/clean them (see SI-7).

19. Let cool for 2 hours (you’ve waited 48 hours for this, you can do 2 more hours) before eating. The exterior should be very crisp with the interior having a very creamy custard texture (Figure 1).

Figure 1. View of the finished recipe.

Figure 2. Moulds after being filled with the butter/beeswax mixture. Be sure to fill the moulds with the mixture to the brim to ensure proper and even coating of the canelé.

Figure 3. Moulds after being filled with the batter. Do not overfill moulds, as this will result in "mushrooming" which produces white bottoms on the final product.

Figure 4. Comparison of finished product made using copper moulds (left) and carbon steel moulds (right).

Supplemental Information

1. The prolonged resting time ensures good structure development (proper flour hydration because of limited mixing and some gluten formation when there is not a lot of protein available).

2. We need the temperature to go very high for the first few minutes of baking to get that classic brown crunchy exterior.

3. This dessert requires very simple ingredients but is quite technical.

4. Canelé has 2 dominant flavours: rum and vanilla, so use the best quality on hand to get good results.

5. Do not skimp on resting/cooling time. It makes all the difference in the world.

6. With regards to moulds, canelé is traditionally made using copper moulds and I use these ones to make mine. For a more economical alternative, carbon steel also works, though I find that the canelé tends to come out darker. Silicone moulds are NOT recommended for this recipe.

7. When cleaning out the moulds, do not use soap and harsh scrubbing (especially with copper). You want to keep the seasoning from previous batches and the more you make them, the better your canelé would get.

8. Tip to clean out the saucepan where you heat the butter/wax: fill it with water, add some dish soap and heat the mixture just until everything is melted. Discard the mixture thereafter.

Source

Significantly modified from a recipe from Taste of Artisan