Making cannelés/canelés

[Margaret Pilgrim]

My experience has been with a silicon mold and this unorthodox recipe.     Excellent results IMHO with minimum effort and angst.

 

[ElsieD]

45 minutes ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

My experience has been with a silicon mold and this unorthodox recipe.     Excellent results IMHO with minimum effort and angst.

 

You had mentioned this recipe earlier and it is one of 4 I intend to try.  It sure is different from the rest.

[ElsieD]

1 hour ago, Pete Fred said:

I suggest you bin the Wolfert recipe; it's bobbins. Try the Pierre Hermé one instead (500g milk, 50g butter, 250g icing sugar, 100g flour, 100g egg, 40g egg yolk, 60g rum).

 

I get decent results with it...

 

 

 

Traditionally, I think cannelés used just egg yolks. Dominique Ansel makes his this way, and the recipe produces a cannelé with a slightly different texture inside...

 

 

 

 

Process is important at all stages (making the batter, lining the moulds, baking). For some tips, have a listen to Kriss Harvery talking about his obsession with making the perfect cannelé -- short version or very loooooong version.

 

Those are gorgeous.  What kind of flour does he use?  Yours appear to be more cakey than custardy or am I wrong?  And yes, I will give Kriss Harvey a listen.  Thanks for your input.

[Pete Fred]

I often see on the internet the inside of a cannelé described as custardy, or like crème brûlée, and it's a little misleading. It's really just soft and yielding, a contrast to the crisp shell. I wouldn't describe it as creamy; there's a definite texture to it, but it's difficult to put into words. You'll only know when you make (or buy) a good one, and most of the ones you see online (and in shops!) are not very good, I'm afraid.

 

The Hermé recipe uses French T45 flour, I think, which has a protein content of 9-10%, so American cake flour might be the equivalent.

[teonzo]

I would say the inside is similar to crepes, after all the recipes are pretty similar.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[rotuts]

Wow

 

Excellent  !

 

not to be a Noob :

 

I used to get Excellent Results w Tj's  Fz cannels

 

w respect  but they no longer carry them

 

maybe in the Spring

 

Ill join in

 

and make my onw

 

for go to France

 

even better Mon treal

 

cheers

 

hopefully their is a snail on at least one face.

 

 

[ElsieD]

Yesterday I baked the last four. I decided to coat 2 of the molds with the beeswax mixture the other with butter.  The ones coated in beeswax are on the left the ones coated in butter are on the right.  They were baked at 400F for 70 minutes.  Surprisingly , the ones coated in butter were shinier than the ones coated in beeswax and had the same crunch.  I wasn't expecting that. Next up is the Pierre Herme recipe.

[teonzo]

The one on the right seems perfect, so you got the correct settings for your oven. Now it's just abount finding your favourite recipe, eating the trials will be a huge sacrifice I suppose.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[ElsieD]

1 hour ago, teonzo said:

The one on the right seems perfect, so you got the correct settings for your oven. Now it's just abount finding your favourite recipe, eating the trials will be a huge sacrifice I suppose.

 

 

 

Teo

 

 

It's a good thing I'm up for the challenge!

[ElsieD]

I made the Pierre Herme recipe the other day and baked two last night.  When I took the batter out of the fridge, a thick layer of something had settled to the top.  I stirred it back in, and filled the molds and placed them in the oven.  This time, just to see the result, I sprayed the inside of the molds with cooking spray.  When I went to take the spoon out the  batter, I was surprised to see that it had a  mound of what looked like flour on it.  I stirred that back in and wondered what impact that would have.  The caneles were baked at 400F convection for 70 minutes.  As you can see, they would have benefited from less time in the oven.  They verged on burnt and tasted like it although the insides were good.  I just checked the batter and, as was the case yesterday, it seems to have separated again - a foamy top and the flour is on the bottom.  I did not have this problem with the Paula Wolfert recipe.  

[ElsieD]

Well, I think I finally nailed it.

[rotuts]

@ElsieD 

 

wow , those look soooooo  good.

 

congratulations 

[gfweb]

@ElsieD That's perfect!

[teonzo]

5 hours ago, ElsieD said:

Well, I think I finally nailed it.

 

There's only one way to know, I'll give you my postal address.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[ElsieD]

31 minutes ago, teonzo said:

 

There's only one way to know, I'll give you my postal address.

 

 

 

Teo

 

 

Okay.  I've just made up a new batch of batter.

[ElsieD]

Well, I am humbled.  Flushed with success, I made up another batch of batter, let it sit for a  couple of days and baked up my little batch of six.  The only thing that was different was I had made a mistake and set the initial 15 minute bake 25 degrees lower than what had worked so well the last batch.  They rose, but never fell.  As you can see, the bottoms are slanted and the insides had big holes in them.  We ate them anyway and they were good, but "wetter" on the inside, if you know what I mean.  Does anyone know what I might have done wrong?  Did I whisk the batter too long?  Did the difference in temperature make that much of a difference?  They were baked for a total of 75 minutes.  I still have batter left.  @teonzo  Don't send me your address just yet.

[rotuts]

@ElsieD 

 

well OK

 

sorting to continue to work on

 

would you have the ingredients 

 

Id love a few of those right now.

 

 

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Elsie, did you ever try the ersatz recipe and procedure i suggested upthread?

[teonzo]

13 hours ago, ElsieD said:

Did the difference in temperature make that much of a difference?

 

I would say this.

 

 

 

13 hours ago, ElsieD said:

@teonzo  Don't send me your address just yet.

 

Before giving my address, you need to visit a Star Trek forum and build a transporter.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Shelby]

@ElsieD  I don't know how I missed this since December.  I think even your latest ones look delicious.  I bought a cannele pan years ago and have never been brave enough to try it.

[RandomCrap]

Beginner's Luck.

 

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. I just baked my first attempt at canneles today and they came out great. Of the 6, 1 had a bit of light butt and 1 was peaked on top, with a bubble inside. All were eminently edible. Made me wonder what all the fuss was about. Of course, that simply means that tomorrow when I bake up the rest of the batter they'll all come out funky, no doubt.

 

I used the recipe from The Perfect Loaf (https://www.theperfectloaf.com/canele/). Variations: I use 2 eggs and 3 yolks, not 2.5 yolks. I added about twice the amount of rum called for. I didn't have any decent vanilla beans so I substituted extract. I have some of the nonstick aluminum molds from Sur La Table. I coated them with clarified butter, not using any wax. I probably didn't even need that. They came out very easily.

 

I let the batter rest from Tuesday evening until Saturday morning. I think this is part of why it worked, but the main reason is the use of a baking steel. I preheated the oven and steel for 1 hour at 475. The molds went on a baking sheet on the steel. Tomorrow, I'll put a sheet of foil on the steel and skip the sheet altogether. The cannele rose about 1cm over the top of the molds, with no mushrooming, then subsided back to the level of the molds. I think that skipping the sheet will make the bottoms crisp up just a bit faster. Total time was 15 minutes at 475 and about 53 minutes at 350.

 

My wife and I ate them all, and only afterwards did I kick myself - no photos. Does this mean it's like a big fish story? I never considered sharing the process with anyone. They looked a lot like these (following picture from the Perfect Loaf article mentioned above) except for the different finish sheen because I did not use beeswax.

 

I have 1 of the $30 copper molds on order, and some beeswax, so I can compare with the aluminum molds. I think that having that hot steel base is the key.

Edited May 10, 2020 by Smithy
Included photo attribution at new member's request (log)

[chanjying]

I've had great success with the cannele recipe in Toothache Magazine: https://toothachemagazine.com/collections/print-issues/products/toothache-issue-04-preorder. It's not free, unfortunately, but it was developed with a lot of testing and trial and error, which is always fun to read about. More labour intensive, but never had any failure with it in my home kitchen. I do use copper molds though along with a mixture of beeswax and clarified butter to line the moulds. No need for a hot steel base. 

[ElsieD]

On 4/8/2019 at 7:23 AM, suzilightning said:

Years ago...1977-78...when I was working in restaurants to get money to go to grad school, I made these by the scores.  Buttering those fluted molds was a nightmare.

 

@suzilightning  Can you tell me how you cleaned the molds?  I have the proper Bordeau copper ones and I wash and dry them by hand between uses.  I read somewhere where someone said they never washed them, is that right?  I would think they'd get grungy.

Edited May 25, 2020 by ElsieD
added @suzilightning (log)

[ElsieD]

I made up some more batter as per the Paula Wolfert recipe upthread and decided to follow her baking instructions which is to bake them at 400F for 1 3/4 to 2 hours.  They were baked in the BSOA on non-convect.  I had my oven thermometer in there to make sure the temperature was correct.  These were a disaster.  I pulled them after an hour and 15 minutes and they were already burnt on the top and the inside was not baked.  Not even close.  Also, they stuck horribly to my molds.

 

As to my molds, the last time I used them I had some trouble with sticking.  I washed them with soap and water and re-seasoned them.  They were put in the fridge and once cold, I throughly oiled them and put them back in the fridge.  I stirred the batter, removed the molds from the fridge, filled them and put them in the oven.

 

What is the problem with the molds?  Why do they stick?  Why did they burn and not bake through?  It seems to me the temperature is too high but other recipes have called for that temperature but them instructs you to turn the oven down.  How do I get the batter/baked bits off the molds?

 

Lastly, I still have some batter so can bake some more.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 27, 2020 by Smithy
Removed non-links at poster's request (log)

[rotuts]

@ElsieD 

 

""   400F for 1 3/4 to 2 hours ""

 

that has to be a typo in the Rx.   

 

as you now know first hand