Baking

Canelés recipe

Name: Canelés
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 1 h 15 min
Total time: 49 h 30 min
Yield: 18
Ingredients: 500ml full fat milk; 30g semi-salted butter (I used salted); 1 vanilla pod (split) OR; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 100g strong white bread flour (or plain flour); 1 tsp fine sea salt; 150g sugar; 3 eggs; 80ml bourbon (or rum)

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Chewy, custardy canelés, made in De Buyer silicone moulds and flavoured with vanilla and bourbon.

Prep15m
Stand48h
Cook1h 15m
Total49h 30m

cake

Chewy, custardy canelés, flavoured with vanilla and bourbon

Update

For the deepest of deep dives into canelés, look no further than the canelé edition of Nicola Lamb's weekly newsletter, Kitchen Projects. I love this newsletter and can't wait for the cookbook to come out in May 2024. Nicola tested the De Buyer moulds alongside copper, steel and cheap silicone and found that De Buyer gave her good results.

After reading the newsletter I now give my canelés an hour's rest rather than 24-48 hours and I bake them on a preheated tray.

As soon as I found out about canelés, just a few weeks ago, I knew I had to make them. I love pastries, custard and anything with booze in so after some research I purchased two De Buyer Elastomoule silicone canelé moulds. I went with De Buyer because their silicone contains metal powders to help retain heat and give the canelés their signature chewy crust and soft custardy insides.

According to reviews these fortified moulds do a decent job of turning out canelés but they can’t really compare to the beautiful traditional copper moulds, which require careful seasoning with 50% butter, 50% beeswax before the batter goes anywhere near them. I’m far too lazy for that so silicone is fine by me.

This recipe comes from Chocolate and Zucchini and I was really happy with my first batch. You can see in the picture that some of my canelés suffered from what’s known in Canelé World as “pale ass”, meaning that the bottom hasn’t coloured. The canelés near the back of the oven (the hotter part) caramelised more evenly so next time I’ll be vigilant about rotating the moulds throughout the cooking process.

Update: I've made a second batch of canelés and figured out the exact cooking times for my (non-fan-assisted) oven. I've also swapped plain flour for extra strong white bread flour and reduced the sugar from 180g to 150g, which is the right amount of sweet for me.

Notes

According to the De Buyer website, their Elastomoule moulds support temperatures between -70°C to +300°C.

Recipe

Canelés

Prep15m
Stand48h
Cook1h 15m
Total49h 30m

Makes: 18

Ingredients

500ml full fat milk
30g semi-salted butter (I used salted)
1 vanilla pod (split) OR
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g strong white bread flour (or plain flour)
1 tsp fine sea salt
150g sugar
3 eggs
80ml bourbon (or rum)

Method

Add 500ml of milk, 30g of butter and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract or 1 split vanilla pod to a saucepan and heat gently until the butter has completely melted. Turn the heat off and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes.
Combine 100g of strong white bread flour (or plain flour), 1 teaspoon of salt and 150g of sugar in a medium mixing bowl.
Gently beat 3 eggs in another bowl taking care not to mix in any air (the canelés aren't supposed to rise when cooked).
Once the milk mixture has cooled, pour the eggs into the flour mixture then immediately add the milk and gently stir (don’t whisk) until the ingredients have combined.
If using a vanilla pod scrape the seeds into the mixture and throw in the pod.
Add 80ml of rum or bourbon to the mixture and stir. If the mixture looks lumpy, pass it through a sieve.
Allow to cool to room temperature then refrigerate for at least 1 and up to 48 hours.
When ready to cook, put a large baking tray in your oven and preheat it to 250°C (230°C fan). It's important that your oven is properly preheated to prevent the canelés from mushrooming. If using non-silicone moulds butter the insides generously.
The canelé mixture will have separated in the fridge so gently stir it and remove the vanilla pod (if using) before pouring it into the moulds leaving a 1cm gap at the top.
Place another tray at the bottom of the oven to catch any potential drips then place the filled canelé moulds onto the preheated oven tray.
Bake for 20 minutes at 250°C (230°C fan) before turning the oven down to 200°C (180°C fan), without opening the door, to bake for another 20 minutes.
Rotate the canelé moulds and bake for a further 35 minutes, rotating one more time if your oven cooks unevenly like mine does. If at any point the tops of the canelés look like they’re starting to burn, cover the moulds loosely with foil.
Cook until the tops are a deep dark brown (not black and burned). My canelés required a total of 75 minutes in the oven for the bottoms to colour.
Once cooked, allow to cool in the silicone moulds for 10 minutes (to prevent collapsing) before turning out onto a wire rack to cool fully.