mjw

I'm sure others are better with words than I am, but yes they're just barely firmer than a custard inside with a crispy, slightly sweet and fragrant shell. The combination is heavenly, as you can guess from 18 years of posts on this thread 😁

Success! This time I didn't prewarm the molds, just coated them at room temp (80ish today), let the wax mixture sit for about 20 sec before dumping it out. Then I chilled in the freezer for about 10 min to set the wax, but brought back to room temp before filling. Thanks again @RandomCrap for pointing me in the right direction! Can't wait for my bedtime snack tonight. Mike

Nope, seems the white spots are even worse this time when I heated the molds and wax mixture even hotter before coating. As @RandomCrap suggested, I'll try the next batch with a thicker layer. This series of pictures is as-filled, after 10 min at 500F, then after 20 min at 425F, then after another 20 min at 425F. The 2 in the front row of the final picture were molds that I prepped later, so they sat a few extra min after I prewarmed them in the oven before I poured the wax mixture in, so they would have been a little cooler. Mike

Non-convection. I place the copper molds on a standard aluminum sheet pan (no fancy ridges or nonstick coating or anything), with a piece of foil in it to make cleanup easier. Then the sheet pan goes on the stone. Mike

I bake for 10 min at 500F on a baking stone (rotating after 5 min), then 40-45 min at 425F (rotating every 10 min). btw I'm using this recipe, which I haven't seen mentioned on this thread yet. It takes a similar approach to Paula's in that the butter is blended with the sugar and flour before adding the hot milk and eggs. Mike

You're right - I didn't have any problem mushrooming - I filled each mold w/ 70g batter, and they rose just up to the top, with the center bulging slightly upwards, but the edges not going past the mold, so that's not the problem. I had assumed I had too much lubrication, hadn't considered that I might have too little. They did just slip right out of the molds when I flipped them upside down (didn't even really have to tap them), which I would think wouldn't be the case if I didn't have enough coating. This is interesting, and the first explanation I've been able to find. Thanks! I might experiment with it at some point in the future, but for now I'm not going to add that variable into my experiments since the height of mine seems fine, and I'm not having mushrooming problems. Maybe that's also less necessary since I'm preheating my baking stone to 500 about an hour before baking, so that provides enough shock without the added chilling? OK, this is good to know, too. Maybe I'll drop the temp a minute or so earlier. I'm only doing 10 min at 500, rotating after 5, before dropping the temp. Actual temp will drop more slowly since I'm using a stone, though. Thanks! Yes, we had no problem eating the second batch, either :-) I've got enough batter for 12 ready to bake today. If anything, the wax-butter coating should be a little thinner than last time since I tried to apply it hotter and didn't let it dwell at all in the mold -- filled to the rim and them dumped it out immediately. Here's a pic of the coated mold in case you can see anything from a picture... I'm going to bake 4 this afternoon to see how they turn out. If they still have white tops, I'll probably re-coat the next 4 and try to get the coating to be a little thicker. Thanks, Mike

I recently had beginners luck... Copper molds from Bordeaux (a little over $10 each plus shipping for a dozen on etsy), clarified butter and beeswax, didn't freeze the molds (seemed counterintuitive if I want to get them as hot as possible as fast as possible). I baked them on an aluminum sheet pan on a pizza stone 500F for 10 min then 425F for 40, rotating regularly. They were perfect. Then a week later I followed what I thought was the identical process, but nope... Almost every one had a large white portion on top (but still delicious). I'm thinking I must not have gotten the molds or the butter-wax mixture quite as hot before coating the molds the second time I made them, so maybe there was a spot where it was too thick when I poured it in to coat them. If anybody has other thoughts from my pictures, let me know. I mixed up another batch of batter and prepped my molds tonight for another try on Friday. I tried to make sure everything was hotter when I coated them this time. To the naked eye they look good (thin and uniform), but we will see... I uploaded pictures of both batches. Mike