Making cannelés/canelés

[Msk]

These sound so good, I'm in. However Paula's link doesn't seem to work anymore. Can someone PM me the recipe? Any help would be appreciated.

Msk

[Wolfert]

Sorry, but I took down the link when the book was published. . You can check the full recipe which includes all the tricks and caveats. In the meantime, here is an abbreviated version which might be all you need.

1/2 vanilla bean split with grains scraped into bowl or 1 teaspoon pure vanilla

1 scant cup superfine sugar

2 cups whole milk

3/4 cup cake flour

2 tablespoons firm sweet butter, diced

4 large egg yolks

Pinch of salt

1 tablespoon dark rum

10 seasoned cannele molds.

Prepare the molds in advance: spray the ridged interior of the cannele molds with "white oil" (a combination of bee's wax and tasteless oil---you can get this at any farmer's market where they sell honey); and set in the freezer until ready to fill.

Combine sugar, flour and butter in a mixing or food processor. Mix well.Add the egg yolks, one by one, then add salt and milk heated to 183 degrees F. Mix completely then pour through a really fine strainer. Flavor with vanilla and rum . Cool, cover and refrigerate up to three days.

When ready to bake preheat the oven to 400 degrees. F. Place molds on a baking sheet about 1 1/2 inches apart. Gently paddle not whisk the batter to recombine then fill each mold almost to the top. Place on the bottom oven shelf and bake for 1 1/2 to 2 hours until really dark brown or black. Convection oven timing is about 1 1/4 hours.

To remove a cannele from its mold: rap the crown directly onto something really hard. It should drop out If it doesn't, rap again or use a thin skewer to loosen the sides. Cool on racks for at least 2 hours.

Edited June 24, 2004 by Wolfert (log)

[Msk]

Thanks Paula.

Your book is on the top of "to purchase list." Thanks for the recipe in the meantime.

These sound so up my alley, I can't believe I have never heard of them let alone tried them.

Msk

[James MacGuire]

I'm supposed to be some sort of expert, yet I haven't looked into most of these things as carefully as you lot.

I had the honor of cooking dinner once for Paula Wolfert, and in light of all of this, thank my lucky stars I didn't make caneles.....

Toodles

James

[Wolfert]

I remember the evening very well, and I remember you and the bread were the stars of the evening.

cheers,

Paula

[SethG]

I can't believe I missed this thread the first, second and third time it came around.

Admission: I have never tasted a canele. But this thread has inspired me. I will make a special trip to Balthazar to taste a proper specimen, and then I will bake some myself.

This is one of those wonderful things about food-- there are so many avenues down which to wander. There's always some new idea just sitting there, frequently already on your bookshelf, waiting to introduce you to a whole new world.

[mjc]

take a trip to payard to taste a "proper" specimen

[FoodMan]

Williams Sonoma is selling their French made tin canelle molds for 10 for 4 of them (normally they are $23). are they worth it? Or should I just get the Silicon Flex ones?

Elie

[Carolyn Tillie]

Williams Sonoma is selling their French made tin canelle molds for 10 for 4 of them (normally they are $23). are they worth it? Or should I just get the Silicon Flex ones?

Elie

That must be a store-only deal. The website shows nothing other than the silicon ones...

By Paula's accounts, (if memory serves -- I could be wrong here) they should be tin-lined copper. I would think that tin alone might be too thin.

I've had reasonable success with the silicon, but I've also tasted ones that Paula has made in her copper molds and they are far superior to my silicone ones.

[Wolfert]

Whatever you buy, just be sure it isn't aluminum. You can use nordicware, silicone, or best of all--tin-lined copper for successful canneles.

Thanks for the kind words about my canneles.

[nightscotsman]

Whatever you buy, just be sure it isn't aluminum. You can use nordicware, silicone, or best of all--tin-lined copper for successful canneles.

Thanks for the kind words about my canneles.

Actually, the mini aluminum molds I got in France work just fine - results almost indistinguishable from the tin lined copper. I've never been able to get good results from silicon molds, though I've tried a couple different brands. Something about the way they are all attached at the top keeps them from baking evenly in a conventional oven.

[Wolfert]

I am really happy to hear that the aluminum molds do work. I was told that the crunchy exterior just never happened.

Or are you referring to those beautiful chocolate canneles you posted awhile?

[LT Wong]

I finally got round to making canneles this week, and am happy to report that with all the tips in this thread, I've been able to produce the crisp crust and custardy centre.

I followed Pascal Rigo's recipe this time again, with the exception that I froze the copper moulds and chilled the batter for 36 hours. I didn't use beeswax (it is rather difficult to get food grade beeswax in Singapore), but I took a tip from a French lady who sells french pastries in a pastry shop here that she uses caramel to create the crispy exterior. I brushed melted butter-vegetable oil and sprinkle fine sugar into the moulds and left them in the freezer.

I filled them almost to the rim, and baked them at 180C/400F in a convection oven for 1 hour 15 minutes.

My only issue with this batch was that they rose beautifully above the rim in the first 45 minutes only to sink about 1/2 inch below the rim for the remainder of the baking period and they're remained at that height ever since. I wish they could remain slightly taller.

I took Paula's advice that they're best up to 5 hours after they're baked, and have been eating one per hour to check out the texture. After four canneles and four hours, they're still crisp outside and custardy inside, but they're beginning to soften outside.

I'm trying Paula's recipe next. Thanks everyone for sharing their tips and experiences.

[Wolfert]

canneles are an artisinal product and often do sink in the baking. When I was in Bordeaux learning to make canneles most of the time they ended up smaller than the mold. This is another reason to get the 55 mold which is the largest.

I can't wait to try your tip of butter-oil and sugar. Thanks so much, Paula

[FoodMan]

SO I decided to give those tin canelle molds and canelles a try based on this thread (I have never had them before) and bought a set of four tin molds from WS. I used Paula Wolfert's recipe and baked four canelles a few hours ago. To lube the molds I used a butter-oil combination and followed the recipe exactly. During baking the canelles came out of the molds like nightscotsman's did, but following Paula's advice I left them alone and sure enough they slid back in. After two hours of baking the little cakes were vaery dark. I took them out and immediatly banged on the counter and turned them on the cooling rack with no sticking at all.

I could not wait more than one hour to taste those things and once I did I ate three of them and my wife had one. They were amazing, crunchy, chewy, bitter-sweet on the outside and soft custardy on the inside. I will head over to WS and buy another set of those molds before they run out. I still have about half the batter in the fridge and I am planning on baking another four tomorrow to see how it compares to the ones from today.

Here are a couple of pics I took (they look a little darker in the picture than they really are), you can see the canelle and the tin molds. The molds are light but very sturdy and hard.

Thanks for everyone's advice and experimentation, I am hooked on those things.

Elie

[Wolfert]

They look beautiful with very lean skins.

edited to remove text I did not write. Very strange.

]

Edited June 27, 2004 by Wolfert (log)

[nightscotsman]

I am really happy to hear that the aluminum molds do work. I was told that the crunchy exterior just never happened.

Or are you referring to those beautiful chocolate canneles you posted awhile?

No, just the traditional flavor. They are mini molds, so I do prefer my standard size copper ones. They are very thick aluminum, possibly thicker than the ones they sell at William Sonoma, but I don't know it that would make a difference.

[SethG]

I'm planning to hit Williams Sonoma tomorrow for molds.

I thought New Yorkers here might like to know that you can get beeswax from Nature's Way-- they come to the Brooklyn Grand Army Plaza greenmarket on Saturdays. They don't bring beeswax with them, but it can be special-ordered. They're bringing me some in two weeks, 4 oz. for 75 cents.

[Richard Kilgore]

Thanks for the report, Elie. I had been passing those molds by at W-S, so I went by and picked up eight (55mm) today. (They also had a number of other pieces of pastry equipment on sale, and sometimes it was marked only on the invidual products rather than on the shelves, so it's worth picking things up to check. For example, I noticed a set of 6 non-stick barquetes for$7.99. and a large rectangular Kaiser Spring Pan for $25.)

[Wolfert]

Please keep in mind that bee's wax is highly flammable. There are two safe ways to melt it:put a few chunks of bee's wax along with a little tasteless in a pyrex type cup and heat in a microwave or in a double boiler.

To keep, cover and store the mixture remaining in the cup in a drawer or cupboard.

[FoodMan]

I tried Wolfert's recipe over the weekend and I have to say they were absolutely wonderful. Crunchy chewy crust with a very soft and custardy center. Here is a picture I took :

Elie

[jaynesb]

I was in our local Williams Sonoma and saw the tin set [of 4 molds]. They were originally $22.50 and were marked down to $10.99 but the cashier said that they were now $4.99 (so of course I bought 2 sets....)

I'm looking forward to trying to bake canneles sometime soon.

jayne

[ellencho]

Rather late to the party but thought I'd share my cannele success with you guys. I used Malgieri's recipe which is eerily similar to Roux's recipe and since my brother doesn't care for the taste of rum, I substituted an entire orange's worth of zest and an entire vanilla bean.

I pre-froze the molds in my freezer before I added my cold batter. I baked them for an hour in a silicone cannele pan that I bought from amazon.com and they turned out pretty durn good. I had no problems with sinking and no problems with crust formation. The silicone pans are awesome, you don't need to grease them, the canneles pop out quite easily and they're a breeze to clean.

I apologize in advance for the bad lighting, but I used a camera-phone. And also for not showing a pic of a cut cannele. Bad ellen bad!

[boulak]

Rather late to the party but thought I'd share my cannele success with you guys.  I used Malgieri's recipe which is eerily similar to Roux's recipe and since my brother doesn't care for the taste of rum, I substituted an entire orange's worth of zest and an entire vanilla bean.

I pre-froze the molds in my freezer before I added my cold batter. I baked them for an hour in a silicone cannele pan that I bought from amazon.com and they turned out pretty durn good.  I had no problems with sinking and no problems with crust formation.  The silicone pans are awesome, you don't need to grease them, the canneles pop out quite easily and they're a breeze to clean.

I apologize in advance for the bad lighting, but I used a camera-phone. And also for not showing a pic of a cut cannele.  Bad ellen bad!

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I purchased silicone pans in Austria, but have pretty much written them off. I was quite disappointed in the color and the texture of the crust. Mine, like yours, looked quite nice otherwise, but lacked the defining characteristics of traditional canneles. At least the molds were not expensive.

[francois]

Thanks Charlotte, I'll add that one to my wish list. And I'll let you know what happens when I try the recipe.

Sadly, the Nancy Silverton recipe caused the same problem as all the others I've tried. Here's what is happening - as the cannele starts to bake it expands and pushes itself up and out of the mold, leaving a big airspace between the batter and the bottom of the mold. This means that the top tends to burn and the bottom never browns. I've tried slipping a knife down the side of the mold to release the pressure when it starts to rise, but within minutes of putting them back in the oven they spring out of the pan again. I actually "re-seated" them about five times before giving up and letting them bake. I'm getting really frustrated!

Does anyone else have this problem? If so, how do you handle it? I'm using copper molds (both chilled and room temperature) and I've tried various coatings including butter, non-stick spray and lecithin. I've also tried oven temperatures from 350 to 410

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I have the same problem. No matter how often I read and reread this thread, I just don't get the solution. Is it my recipe? (I use Hermé's). Is it something that I do wrong?