Canneles Bordelais

I recently had a craving for Canneles, which are a specialty of Bordeaux region in France.  They are one of my favourite desserts to eat; however,difficult to find and when found costs an arm and leg. Three words describe them perfectly, crunchy, chewy and caramelized.  I liked them so much that I decided to learn how to make them.

I have used silicone cannele molds, the first time, but have found that while they did bake and held their shape, they didn’t caramelize like the ones seen in bakeries. WHY? Apparently, the combination of copper, a conductor of heat, and beeswax or butter produces the results.  I then made it my quest to find them. It was nowhere to be found in Vancouver.  I only found it on Amazon.  Finding the beeswax was the next step.

With the two vital pieces of equipment in hand, I set forth scouring recipes on the net and with the help of online resources, I decided to make them again.

Keys to Waxing the little Canneles Molds

• Make sure the molds are warm prior to pouring warm wax into the mold, as wax solidifies easily once temperature decrease
• If wax layer is too thick in the copper molds, reheat to melt the wax and coat with melted wax again-thin layer only

• Flip the cannele mold right side up on rack so access wax drains out.

• Alternatively, you could also use butter and flour for the molds as well according to Laduree‘s recipe.  Make sure the butter is cold prior to adding the batter.

Next step was making the batter for the Canneles

Keys to making the batter

• The optimal batter was to make it and leave it in the fridge overnight so the flavours could mature
• Fill the mold w/ the batter 3/4 full, as the pastry will puff up during the baking process.

• If the pastries puff up, remove them from the oven as they will sink back in or  use tongs to gently push them back in.   The other alternative as Pierre Herme stated was to prick them with a knife.  Bake the canneles for 45-1 hour long or when they caramelize at 350F.

Ingredients-Pierre Herme Recipe

500 ml milk

50 g melted butter

250 g. sift icing sugar ( I used 200 g)

2 eggs and 2 egg yolks

100 g sifted flour (I used 110 g flour)

15 g aged dark rum

Overall the taste was good and the sweetness level was good.   Of note I found the first batch using the 100 g of flour too soft and swelled up really fast.  For the second and third batch, I increased the flour portion as suggested by Laduree to 110 g.  The outcome was alot better.  I found the beeswax, although helped in the caramelizing, melted onto the cookie sheet during baking.  Next time I will try using Laduree’s suggestion of butter and flouring the molds.