When I used to live in France I didn't become ecstatic at the sight of a French pastry shop like the way I do now when I go over. I probably took it for granted and never thought I'd move to another country with a different food culture, I never thought I would ever miss the pâtisseries. Over the last few months I've tried to bake a few of my favourite French pastries and I've enjoyed it a lot.
A few weeks ago when my parents came to visit me, my mam brought me cannelé moulds as per my request. Cannelés are originally from Bordeaux, they're made of a thick batter and their crust has a dark caramelised look. They are traditionally baked in copper moulds but you can find silicon moulds too.
So I tried to bake my first cannelés when my parents were here and I was terrified of failing as they can be quite tricky to get right and my parents are very straight forward (they wouldn't tell me my cannelés were lovely if they weren't). I used a recipe from one of my favourite food magazines and to my greatest surprise my cannelés were a success if I can say so myself and even my parents loved them.
I have never seen cannelés moulds in a shop in Ireland (let me know if you have) but with the internet I'd say it's pretty easy to get one in no time. Once you have the moulds, you don't need many ingredients but don't forget to make the batter at least 24hours before you want to eat them.
Bordeaux Cannelés (using silicon moulds)
(Recipe from Marmiton n. 16 Mars/Avril 2014)
Ingredients
50 cl milk
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
25 g butter (diced)
200g sugar
100g plain flour
3 tbs rum
1 vanilla pod
Method
The day before
Split the vanilla pod lengthways, scrape the seeds out and put everything (seeds and pod) into a saucepan with the milk and butter
Heat it until it simmers and then remove from the heat and let it cool down a bit
In a bowl whisk the eggs and egg yolks together with the sugar, add the flour and mix
Strain the milk into the egg mixture and stir until the batter looks almost like crêpe batter
Let it cool completely and add the rum to the mixture
Refrigerate the batter for at least 24 hours (be patient!)
The day you want to bake the cannelés, stir the batter and fill the moulds to 3/4.
Cooking
Preheat the oven to 240C
Bake for 15 minutes at 240C, lower the heat to 180C and bake for another 40 to 60 minutes depending if you like them golden or very dark.
Take the silicon moulds out of the oven, leave them for about 10 min and then take off the cannelés from the moulds, leave them to cool down completely on cooling a rack.
Bon appétit!
