My Personal Canelé Rabbit Hole

[ElsieD]

8 hours ago, JeffGC said:

ElsieD-What you are doing is great but it might provide some misleading info. Some websites mention the drastic drop in oven temperature when the canelés are placed inside. Baking one at a time would doubtfully have any effect on the temperature. Placing 12 might.

 

I agree with that but given the vast differences in temperatures I'm simply trying to devise a baking starting point.  I have tried 5 recommended settings so far, ranging from starting temperatures of 450F to 375F and continuing the bake with temperatures ranging from 325F to 375F.  The best one so far has me pre-heating the oven to 400F and when they (in my case it) goes in to bake, reducing the heat to 325F and baked for 90 minutes, using a preheated mold.  Can anyone tell me why some recipes say to pre-heat the molds and others say to freeze them?

Thank you for those links.  I'll check them out tomorrow.

[JeffGC]

We will figure this out together!

[ElsieD]

Today I decided to use the last of the mix and make two canelés.  I poured this batter into two molds;  the amount of batter I had was a bit shy of the amount that would usually go into them.  I decided to use room temperature molds as I am curious as to what happens when you neither pre-heat the molds nor freeze them.  The oven was preheated to 400F.  When they went in, I baked them for 5 minutes and then turned the heat down to 325F and baked them for 60 minutes.  For me, they were perfect.  Nice crunch on the outside, no "white ass" the inside sort of a cakey custardy texture if that makes any sense.  I an going to make up another batch of batter today and test the baking times on a batch of 6.  I expect I'll need to adjust the time a bit for the larger batch.  I did test them for color as I went along by quickly upending them to see what their bottoms looked like and with this little bake, added time in 10 minute increments to check on them.  That is how I arrived at a local bake time of 65 minutes.  Edited to add:  these were baked on the convection setting of my oven.

Edited September 13 by ElsieD (log)

[JeffGC]

Those look perfect. 

[ElsieD]

14 minutes ago, JeffGC said:

Those look perfect. 

 

Thanks.  Just finished writing a comparison of the different recipes from the links you posted.  I haven't really looked at them, but the recipes, at first blush do not seem to differ all that much.  

[ElsieD]

If anyone has the book Chez Jacques by Jacques Pepin, I wonder if they could check a couple of things for me.  Does he pre-heat or pre-freeze his molds and secondly, does he initially bake them at 300F and after 30 minutes, crank the heat up to 400F for a further 40 minutes?  I ask because a came across a recipe on the internet that purports to be from his book and the baking temperatures are reversed from any other recipes I've seen.  The recipe linked to below does not discuss the mold freeze/heat I guess because she is using silicone molds.

 

https://apoundofyeast.blogspot.com/search?q=Canelés

 

 

[JeffGC]

Was away for a bit (Paris!) but now back at it.

 

Melting 50/50 at setting 3. Probed and it was 244F, which I think is a bit warm. Next time will reduce to setting 2. Excellent release after baking.

 

Jason Yeh/Can You Canelé

https://jasonyehmd.wordpress.com/

 

First bake was eight and second was five. 45 minutes and 40 minutes, respectively. 

 

Although both batches were incinerated and were like lumps of coal, I was rather encouraged. I had virtually no cul blanc. Tempted to just work on this recipe, but will move on.

Edited October 7 by JeffGC
Attach images (log)

[JeffGC]

Tested oven at 500°. Average is about 475° +/- 25°. I’ll do further testing.

 

I am focused on the Jason Yeh/Can You Canelé recipe for a number of reasons. 1) It only uses egg yolks which should reduce soufléeing. 2) It uses granulated sugar and corn starch, instead of relying on an unknown quantity of cornstarch in confectioner’s sugar. Lastly everything it to weight, in grams.

 

Today was the second bake of the remainder of that used yesterday. Today, 10 minutes at 500° and 35 minutes at 350°.  Started checking at 25 minutes.

 

 

 

 

Nothing was incinerated and I’m going to work with the recipe a bit more.

Edited October 14 by JeffGC (log)

[JeffGC]

Continue working with the same recipe. Plan was to go 10 min/550° and the 20min/350°. On the first batch, I forgot to reduce the heat! This did not go well. Second batch followed the plan.I was pleased and the interiors were excellent. Next test will be 11 min and 12 min at 550° then dropping to 350° for 20. I feel I am making progress.

[ElsieD]

@JeffGC. Those are beauties!  Did you use the Jason Yeh recipe?