My first love affair with Canelês was during my holiday in Bordeaux about 10 years ago. It's the signature regional patisserie and are sold in just about every cafe and corner of the streets.
The origins of Canelês came from wine making and dates back to the 17th century…. Yes ! …. without the vineyards in Bordeaux, we wouldn't be so fortunate to consume these little gorgeous cakes that are crusty and crunchy on the outside with chewy custardy centres. Winemakers used egg whites to clarify the wines in the barrels. All the leftover egg yolks were then given to the nuns who in turn invented these little pastries.
Having tasted the Canelês in Bordeaux I had to learn how to make them. I was told that they have to be made in copper moulds so I bought them from a shop in Bordeaux and started to search for the recipe.
Unfortunately after a couple of attempts I didn't succeed. My canelês got stuck to the moulds and they didn’t rise well either. I was devasted but didn't know what went wrong. I thought the moulds were probably poor quality - in baking having good quality equipment is one of the key things to beautiful results. Alternatively the recipe wasn’t quite precise.
I never attempted to make them again until I went to Le Cordon Bleu Pastry School last year. Strangely even the chef teacher didn't succeed in making them properly and had to re-do them! They did however stress the importance of using copper moulds and recommended that we use a special fat made by Puratos to grease the moulds. However, this Belgian product is not exactly easy to find in Bangkok.
My saving grace was Scullery Made in Armadale, Melbourne. On my holiday home this year, I dropped into this favorite professional baking and cooking equipment shop of mine. The lady, Sue, who used to help me 8 years or more ago before I left Melbourne is still there. She was the saving grace and told me that coating the moulds with beeswax prior to baking is the secret.
I started my mission again to make the perfect Canelês and I was so elated they turned out well!!! They tasted exactly like what I had in Bordeaux as well!
Having the right recipe is important but it’s in the how the recipe is executed that is more critical. Here are the key things to do to getting the right colour, texture and taste for Canelês de Bordeaux :
- Copper moulds make a huge difference - it’s expensive but worth the investment
- Caring for the copper moulds - Wash with warm soapy water initially but once you’ve used them to bake, do not wash them again. Just use paper towels to clean the moulds. If there is residuals in the mould, warm them a bit to make it easier to remove. If you’ve ever used a Italian Bialetti coffee maker before or a Chinese work, it’s the same principal - never scrub them to retain the aroma of the coffee of food
- Greasing the moulds with a combination of melted butter and beeswax (ratio of 70:30). I used honeycomb instead of beeswax
- Chill the moulds in the fridge for 10 minutes and apply another coat of butter and beeswax /honeycomb
- Leave the batter in the fridge for at least 12 hours first
- Bake at a high temperature @ 230ºC for 15 minutes first - this allows the cakes to rise quickly
- Then lower the temperature to 190ºC, turn the baking tray of canelês and bake for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, rotate the tray again. Total baking time should be about 55 minutes
- Remove the canelés from the moulds immediately
The way Canelês should be - crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside.
RECIPE
INGREDIENTS
- 500 ml milk
- 45g butter
- 5ml vanilla extract
- 4 large egg yolks
- 120g flour
- 30g cornstarch
- 225g caster sugar
- 20ml rum
- 20ml grand mariner
METHOD
- Sift dry ingredients in a bowl
- Boil milk and butter to 85°C
- Add vanilla
- Pour hot milk mixture into dry ingredients and whisk until all combined - or use a hand blender
- Add alcohol
- Leave in fridge for at least 12 hours
BAKING
- Heat oven at 250°C for 30 minutes before baking
- In the meantime, place molds in the freezer
- Strain the batter
- Grease the molds with butter and beeswax - 60:40 butter to beeswax and place in the fridge 10 minutes
- Grease again and leave in the fridge 10 minutes
- Reduce the oven temperature to 230°C and bake for 15 minutes
- Reduce the oven again to 190°C - turn the tray and bake for 20 minutes
- At the end of 20 minutes, turn the tray again and continue baking for 20 minutes
- Remove immediately from the molds