Canelés

These treats from Bordeaux are now available at Trader Joe's. $4.99 for six small canelés. Wiith their dark caramelized exteriors, they look just as they should. They do not have the exterior crunch that one would expect in a freshly baked canelé, but all-in-all not too bad.

Jyoti

Thanks for the heads up - great to know. Maybe superheat your oven to its max temp then stick them in there just to crisp the crust? Also let them set a few minutes afterwards.

Cannele are also available at the Green City Market. Floriole Bakery sells them and they are very good ($2.50 a piece, I think). Again, the exterior is not as crispy as what I prefer, but the interiors are nice and custardy. One of the girls behind the counter said they would be getting beeswax for the molds soon, so that should hopefully help solve the 'problem'.

It may sound nerdy, but I am very excited to see cannele become more available! I love those little things and find them impossible to stop eating when I make them at home. Buying them may actually instill some self discipline!

http://www.floriole.com

tavogels wrote: I love those little things and find them impossible to stop eating when I make them at home. Buying them may actually instill some self discipline!

http://www.floriole.com

My self-discipline may be weaker than yours, but I sure had a hard time restraining myself from eating all six yesterday (they were small!!!).

Jyoti

tavogels wrote:Cannele are also available at the Green City Market. Floriole Bakery sells them and they are very good ($2.50 a piece, I think). Again, the exterior is not as crispy as what I prefer, but the interiors are nice and custardy. One of the girls behind the counter said they would be getting beeswax for the molds soon, so that should hopefully help solve the 'problem'.

It may sound nerdy, but I am very excited to see cannele become more available! I love those little things and find them impossible to stop eating when I make them at home. Buying them may actually instill some self discipline!

http://www.floriole.com

if you get these early, just as the market opens, the exterior is indeed perfectly crispy. It deteriorates rapidly throughout the day, however. At least that's been my experience.

Louisa Chu wrote: Maybe superheat your oven to its max temp then stick them in there just to crisp the crust? Also let them set a few minutes afterwards.

Hi Louisa,

I tried this, but the results were not great - my oven was, however, not heated to the max. I may try it again with very high heat.
Thanks for the suggestion.

Jyoti

I have tried these out of a Nancy Silverton book and they were good, but not Paris. What recipes have you liked when making these at home?

nancy wrote:I have tried these out of a Nancy Silverton book and they were good, but not Paris. What recipes have you liked when making these at home?

My favorite is the one from Stephanie Alexander's Cooking and Travelling in South-West France. I use the tinned-lined copper molds coated with a mixture of melted beeswax and butter. There are two recipes in the book: one attributed to Regis Marcon and the other a variation of Paula Wolfert's. I think the former is the best. Getting just the right texture is more a matter of technique than anything else. It took me many tries before I finally got something close to authentic.

Bill/SFNM

Bill/SFNM wrote:I use the tinned-lined copper molds coated with a mixture of melted beeswax and butter. ... Getting just the right texture is more a matter of technique than anything else. It took me many tries before I finally got something close to authentic.

Bill/SFNM

Bill,

Is bees wax an essential element in your technique?

I know you live the enchanted food lifestyle: does this now include beekeeping?

(Note picnic next year is September 12th)

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:
Is bees wax an essential element in your technique?

I know you live the enchanted food lifestyle: does this now include beekeeping?

Cathy2,

I was unable to get the crunchy, glossy, dark exterior without some beeswax in the mold. Beeswax is readily available in the candle section of hobby suppliers, but I get mine from a guy who sells honey and beeswax products at the farmer's market. (It has never occurred to me to raise bees, but a water buffalo in the back yard so I could make fresh mozzarella di bufala is more my speed. My wife thinks I'm joking about this. )

I loved these things when I tried the Trader Joes, which I assume is only a shadow of what they are really like, as TJ's are frozen. Love the burntish, carmalized sugar taste of them reminiscent of flan, creme brulee, or a cross between these and a kind of popover type dough. Very different.

Here is a good website to look at them. I love this website.

http://fxcuisine.com/Default.asp?langua ... ution=high

I'll probably get some silicone molds to try them as the copper ones are just too expensive for something that is a crap shoot at this point.

Love the taste of these things.

Bill/SFNM wrote:

Cathy2 wrote:
Is bees wax an essential element in your technique?

I know you live the enchanted food lifestyle: does this now include beekeeping?

Cathy2,

I was unable to get the crunchy, glossy, dark exterior without some beeswax in the mold. Beeswax is readily available in the candle section of hobby suppliers, but I get mine from a guy who sells honey and beeswax products at the farmer's market. (It has never occurred to me to raise bees, but a water buffalo in the back yard so I could make fresh mozzarella di bufala is more my speed. My wife thinks I'm joking about this. )

Bill,

I'm assuming you use copper molds as I suspect getting a crunchy exterior may be difficult with silicone molds?

Jyoti

toria wrote:I loved these things when I tried the Trader Joes, which I assume is only a shadow of what they are really like, as TJ's are frozen. Love the burntish, carmalized sugar taste of them reminiscent of flan, creme brulee, or a cross between these and a kind of popover type dough. Very different.

Here is a good website to look at them. I love this website.

http://fxcuisine.com/Default.asp?langua ... ution=high

I'll probably get some silicone molds to try them as the copper ones are just too expensive for something that is a crap shoot at this point.

Love the taste of these things.

See my question to Bill regarding molds.
I too am trying not to buy any more cooking pots, pans, molds. However, a thought I just had, which may work, is to use popover pans. They are metal, have space between each cup and could be coated with beeswax.
And, if you don't have a popover pan, they are pretty inexpensive.

Jyoti

Here is another article regarding these with recipe.

http://www.paula-wolfert.com/recipes/canele.html

Everything I've read about them, of course everyone is suggesting to use the copper molds but they are very expensive like twenty dollars a mold. From what I read the silicone molds do work, and you can get the classic cannele shape that you would not get with popover molds.

It appears that beeswax is not completely necessary to have a successful product either.

There is a forum on egullet that has lengthy discussions regarding cannele.
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?sho ... l=canneles

After reading all of these my conclusion is the copper molds are traditional and best and beeswax is also desirable however to be prudent, I will buy the silicone molds from Bridge or Prince and see if a worthy cannele can be made. Possible I will invest in the copper molds later.

I have purchased the canelle pans from JB Prince in silicone. I will post my results with them in a few weeks when I make them. Please note that there are mini cannele pans that are not the right size so be sure you get the eight mold version otherwise you will not be making the authentic size cannele and they will be very tiny and possible burn to crisp.

I also found a source for edible beeswax. It looks nice and clean. They also sell honey.

http://hiveharvest.com/bulk_beeswax.html

Another article regarding canneles. I think I have gone cannele crazy.

http://www.lindystoast.com/2008/01/cannele-for-kid.html

I like the dark brown canneles like this picture, but not the ones that look black and burnt.

I made caneles when I worked in pastry at the Plaza Athenee in Paris. I think I posted on that eGullet thread a long time ago that we used metal molds that were not copper and just butter, no beeswax and they were great.

BTW there's a Baillardran canele stand at the Montparnasse train station in Paris. You can buy them light, medium, and well done. They're pretty good. Can you imagine one in Union Station? http://www.baillardran.com/index.html

Bill - I wonder how buffalo milk and butter would work for your caneles?

Oh fabulous. I'd love to see a cannele stand in the station...or NW station too. A perfect little bite to enjoy on the train home!!!

I just wish there were more of these little shops here in Chicago and surrounds.

toria wrote:I like the dark brown canneles like this picture, but not the ones that look black and burnt.

The best I have had in both France and from my kitchen are very, very dark, almost black, maybe even actually black. There is no burnt taste at all. On the contrary, the thin crust is crunchy, sweet, and, along with the moist interior, result in an untreatable addiction. I am definitely making a batch tomorrow.

Bill/SFNM

Louisa Chu wrote:I made caneles when I worked in pastry at the Plaza Athenee in Paris. I think I posted on that eGullet thread a long time ago that we used metal molds that were not copper and just butter, no beeswax and they were great.

Bill - I wonder how buffalo milk and butter would work for your caneles?

The gushing sound you hear is me thinking about Louisa's pastries. She has forgotten more about food, especially French food, than I will ever know. Louisa, I'll gladly send you buffalo milk products in exchange for some of your pastries (as soon as I figure out how to get a waiver from our CC&R's which prohibit farm animals. Perhaps a water buffalo could be considered a pet? Sit! Stay! Lactate!)

Bill/SFNM aka Louisa Chu Fanboy

Bill/SFNM wrote:Bill/SFNM aka Louisa Chu Fanboy

The line forms behind me, Bill!

=R=

Bill - you are very, very kind - and I'm one of the lucky few here to know firsthand. I'm one of your biggest fans - you have many here. And yes, agreed, your buffalo's milk for pastries.

Ron - again - mutual admiration society! If I could shoot one fraction as good as you...

I picked up a few cannele from Floriole Bakery when at the Green City market last week. They actually had light and dark ones to choose from. I don't think this was intentional--the woman mentioned that she had accidentally left them in longer than usual. A fortunate mistake, however, as they had more of that chewy carmelization I love. A few other people mentioned that they preferred the darker ones, as well, so perhaps they'll become a regular thing.

When I make them at home, I use Paula Wolfert's recipe (and the 'white oil' she suggests), along with metal molds I purchased a few years ago at Sur la Table.

I've always wondered why Vanille doesn't sell cannele. A few years ago I spent an afternoon in NY on a 'bakery crawl.' Among other things, my mission was to try cannele. I'd never had them before, but had read about them on eGullet and was very intrigued. It was a lot of fun to collect them from several different bakeries and line them up for a tasting. Each had its own character. Maybe one day they will catch on enough here in Chicago and I can do the same thing!

tavogels wrote:I picked up a few cannele from Floriole Bakery when at the Green City market last week. They actually had light and dark ones to choose from. I don't think this was intentional--the woman mentioned that she had accidentally left them in longer than usual. A fortunate mistake, however, as they had more of that chewy carmelization I love. A few other people mentioned that they preferred the darker ones, as well, so perhaps they'll become a regular thing.

I've had these 4 times this summer, and on each occasion I have been offered light and dark ones to choose from. I believe that this is indeed an intentional offering for Floriole.

Toria already mentioned this, but it bears repeating:

The canneles at Trader Joe's are in the frozen section! (Specifically, within the dessert section.)

I missed that point, searched the fresh dessert table, then had a staff member running around in search of them. We finally found them, but it took a little work, so I thought I'd make it easier on everyone else.

The silicon Canele pans arrived from JB Prince today. They appear to be of a good size and shape. This is a first as I have never used any silicon pans. I am hoping I will be able to start experimenting with the Caneles soon.

toria wrote:The silicon Canele pans arrived from JB Prince today. They appear to be of a good size and shape. This is a first as I have never used any silicon pans. I am hoping I will be able to start experimenting with the Caneles soon.

I'm looking forward to hearing about the results, as silicone pans appear to be how canele baking is trending.

Good luck!

Jyoti

The copper ones would have cost about 200.00 for eight molds. I wasn't going to go there.

toria wrote:The copper ones would have cost about 200.00 for eight molds. I wasn't going to go there.

Yikes, our poor dollar has really taken a beating. Two years ago I paid less than half that price for copper ones from JB Prince. And I though that was an impulsive extravagance. I don't blame you one bit.

Bill/SFNM

Buy yourself a canelé, you'll enjoy a wonderful treat. Make them yourself and you'll never be without friends . . . and you'll always have treats to enjoy.

I generally used the Dominique Ansel recipe, but studied a number of recipes and molds before making and made some minor adjustments. I ultimately settled on using copper molds because my research suggested they deliver the most consistent color and texture. And I used a mix of beeswax and butter for the molds (80/20).

Assuming you're going with beeswax, buy pellets (available on Amazon). They melt easily and you don't have to worry about cutting into some huge block of wax. You do have to remind yourself continually that you're working with beeswax and that it can make a mess. So use a dedicated pastry brush for brushing the molds, use aluminum foil and parchment paper where you can and you really don't need much beeswax and the heated beeswax can be reused.

A couple of tips that I also learned in the process: 1) better to slightly underfill than overfill, and 2) you bake them on a pan; use a darker pan or one that's better at conducting heat, as opposed to an insulated pan, because only the former will sufficiently darken all bits of the canelés.

I'd say these came out pretty perfect - crisp, crunchy exteriors and custardy interiors and a lovely vanilla-rum flavor.

Here are some pics of the process:


Melted beeswax




Seasoning the molds with beeswax - repeated brushing (4x) and baking of the molds helps season the molds, promoting browning and preventing sticking.




The filled molds, ready to bake




Finished canelés