My friend Anna, expat Aussie living in Paris, is an honorary member of our village, spending several weeks here every year with her family. Check out her blog, Five In Paris, for a charming glimpse of Parisian life that you won’t read about in the travel books.
Anna and I have had an ongoing email discussion about canelés – a decadent French pastry baked in distinctly shaped pans. When I complained that the only moulds I could source here were $11 each (so a set of a dozen would set you back $132), Anna promptly sent me a silicone canelé mould from France. Despite my aversion to silicone, Anna assured me that it was perfect for this purpose and supplied me with her recipe as well.
These were sooooo good. Like a caramelised crispy baked custard. They were soooo good that they caused all the happiness receptors in my brain to fire, and I spent the next hour grinning like the Cheshire Cat. Several thousand calories later, I rang Anna to debrief, and she generously agreed to let me post her recipe here.
To begin with, you need a canelé mould – and they’re not readily available here in Oz. However, I tried baking some of the batter in muffin pans and the end results were delicious – better than the properly shaped ones in fact (possibly because of the metal tin). They don’t look like much, but they’re very crispy and moreish – Pete preferred the muffin tin version over the fluted ones!
Anna’s Canelés
(adapted for my kitchen)
- 500ml milk
- 2 large (59g) eggs
- 1 large (59g) egg yolk
- 125g plain (all-purpose) flour
- 225g sugar
- 15g vanilla sugar
- 15g melted unsalted butter
- 2 teaspoons rum (optional)
1. Beat the eggs and egg yolk together in a heatproof bowl with a wire whisk. Bring the milk to a boil in a small saucepan. Pour the hot milk over the beaten eggs, whisking constantly as you pour the milk in (or you’ll get scrambled eggs). Leave to cool.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, vanilla sugar and melted butter. Gradually pour the cold milk and eggs over the flour mixture , whisking constantly to avoid any lumps. Add the rum (optional) and mix well. Leave the batter overnight or ideally for 24 hours. I let it cool and then store it in a jug in the fridge until needed – give it a good stir and allow it to come back to room temperature before baking.
3. Preheat oven to 180 – 190C with fan. Anna’s original recipe specified 200C, but that was too hot in my oven and the batch I cooked at that temperature burned.
4. Grease the moulds with canola oil spray – give the muffin tins a good spray and the silicone moulds a light one. Fill the moulds to ¾ full. Bake for 60 minutes (I know, it’s hard to believe they won’t burn to a crisp, but they don’t). You want the outsides to be very brown and the insides moist and tender. Allow the cakes cooked in silicone to rest 10 minutes before removing, then let them cool completely before eating, to allow the exterior to crisp up. Best eaten on the day they’re made!
The silicone moulds were fine for this purpose, although they certainly weren’t as non-stick as they’re reputed to be. I found that unless I greased them lightly, the canelés would stick and collapse when removed from the moulds.
Anna mentioned that there’s no “right” way to cook these – Parisians will order their canelés to be cooked according to personal preference – very dark, slightly burnt, light brown and so forth. I like mine golden brown (the bitterness from a burnt exterior puts me off), but Pete likes his slightly darker. Try this easy recipe a couple of times and decide how you prefer them!
Edit: I tried baking the recipe in mini muffin tins as Anna suggested below. This batch also used lactose-free milk. They worked brilliantly! The mini canelés took 40 minutes in a 180C fan-forced oven (although it might be less, depending on your oven – start checking after 30 minutes).
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Wow – very impressive. What a wonderful person this Anna sounds like. I bet she comes from good stock.
Ha! She certainly does.. :-)
French Husband did a big gallic “Huh?” when I showed him a picture of your muffin canelé but then decided that they looked delicious and wanted to eat one.
You could also try them in a mini-muffin tin or friand tin. Some people prefer the mini ones as you get a lot more exterior crunch.
Better go and update my blog … but it is Wednesday so three children at home as no school today.
oh my wordy yes. excellent, excellent stock.
Forgot – can I meet Dredgemeister in Feb? He sounds a lot like my brother.
GORGEOUS! Those look so yummy! We’re planning a two week trip to France in Feb, so I might have a chance to pick up one of the moulds to bring back to the UK.
Noooo-oooo!!!! as my 13 year old neice would say…. don’t tempt me with yet more things that I have never tried…..
they look divine…….. :)))
Anna’s Canelés looks amazing, I’m going to buy everthing I need for this recipe.
SK and Jo, I assumed you’d be able to pick up the canele moulds quite easily in the UK? Is that not the case?
Jo, they really ARE so good! I’m actually going to try making a batch with lactose-free milk – will let you know how I go. Might try the mini muffin pans as well, like Anna suggests…
Celia
Silicone….yay! C, they look lovely. Need to get me one of those
Oh by the way…this is going in this week’s Sinterklaas feast at ours, especially since I don’t think I’ll be able to find Chocolate Bark for some oreo truffles! Tell all…soon
Ah yes, 5th December right, Oz? I’ll be watching your blog in eager anticipation.. :)
They look sooo good that I immediately thought “I am going to make these this afternoon when I pick the kids up from school”. (another thing I read on your blog and rush home to cook that very day!). Then ofcourse I got to the “leave overnight” part of the instructions. Bugger. Have you tried an instant gratification version of this?
Tried a new batch today – using lactose free milk (available in UHT cartons here in Australia) and mini muffin pans. I’ve added a photo to the post above! :)
All right, I give in…. I will make them :))
I tasted caneles in Paris and I absolutely hated them. But from your ingredients I can’t see anything there that would give them the taste of golden syrup/honey/fennel/liqourice that I tasted. Himself like them though so I suppose each to their own … or maybe I was just grumpy and just needed them to be dipped in chocolate …
These are the only ones I’ve ever tried, Gillian, so I’m not sure how they’re meant to taste. But I do find them reminiscent in flavour of Portugese custard tarts, if that helps. Maybe Anna can shed some light on this?
I haven’t heard of any of these ingredients but perhaps they were just too burnt on the outside? A poor canele is not good as the outside is burnt and the inside is overcooked and turns rubbery.
And Celia – I am determined to find you a non-stick silicone mould!
I took the mini canele to my friend Ellen yesterday – she’s just rung to tell me that they freeze beautifully – she’s currently eating them semi-frozen! :)
I made them last night and they were delicious. I did the ‘instant gratification’ approach in that I only waited for a couple of hours before baking them…and that was really only because i had to go out for a couple of hours! yum yum.
Self-raising flour or plain, Celia? Emergency! Emergency! I’m halfway through and am not sure which flour to use……
Plain! Also known as all-purpose!!
This blog is like dialling 000 for cooking emergencies! Thanks, Celia – the batter is safely in the fridge ready for tomorrow.
I’m in too! This reminds me of last Sunday’s bake-a-long-a -Dan-L! (hmm… Dan-L, that sounds very Bristolian)
But I digress: – I have the lacto free milk and we’ll be making the batter soon and cooking tomorrow. Will use a muffin tin and I have some tiny little loaf tins, for those friands, I’ll put some batter in those as well. Also in the post today came: proper panettone papers, and a set of 1/2 lb tins to make your fruit cakes in. And I am trying at this very moment to make candied peel. It’s raining again and it’s cold outside Jo
Jo, how exciting – big panettone wrappers! Your little ones looked perfect, and you really should have a blog, because you have the best baking pics ever!
Gillian over at Some Say Cocoa made candied peel recently – have a look here.
Cheers, Celia
First batch out of the oven and tested. Ours are very dark, but I left Brian in charge while I went to pick my aunt up from the station. Have you ever taken a cross section picture of one? I would love to see the inside of one of yours so I know if these are OK. I think these may be overcooked :(
Jo, they’re meant to be very dark, but you’ll know if they’re burnt when you taste them. I burnt one batch and they were bitter, but the other batches which looked almost burnt were great! The insides are a little squidgy – when I googled them, some people talk about them having a moist “heart”. I think the mini ones are easier to burn – just spoke to Tracey and she said the same thing, although every one of hers was eaten at their street Christmas party – one neighbour ate ten! :)
I’ll amend the post to reduce the cooking time on the minis – thank you. :)
Hi Anna — and Celia…..i’m going to give the caneles a try. it’ll make me think i’m in Paris!!!
see you in Feb Anna..hopefully!
Monica
Hi again. Tried to send you my photos of the inside of the caneles we tried in Paris but so far no luck! The ones we tried (3 different places) were quite chewy on the outside and all contained rum (mild flavour tho’). They weren’t as sweet either. Very yummy. I tried to find molds in England without luck.
The boys loved the garlicky snails. Not to mention chocolat chaud and pastries…..
Got them, Trace, thank you for thinking of me! They look absolutely delicious! Sounds like you had a wonderful time, so happy to hear that.. :)