Canelés de Bordeaux
There is an exquisite patisserie called Pariès in Bayonne, which is the capital of the Basque country in south-western France. They recently produced a book of their recipes, which I drooled over discovered the other day. Bayonne is famous for its chocolate, amongst other things, and was one of the first places in Europe to produce chocolate in the early 17th century. There is always a deliciously rich, chocolate-laden aroma in the streets of the city centre. It’s sometimes worth just strolling around there to get a fix!
I will be sharing some of the chocolate recipes from this absolute gem of a book, but today I made another regional speciality: canelé [kan-ul-ay]. A canelé (or cannelé) is a small French pastry with a moist custard-like centre and a dark, thick caramelized crust. It is the shape of a striated cylinder approximately 5 cms in height and is a specialty of Bordeaux.
These contain too much sugar for me to claim that they’re positively good for you. Having said that, I made them with cane sugar and spelt flour (of course!) and as they contain rich, ‘real’ ingredients they are most definitely a healthier choice as a treat than anything in packaging! I had to make a second batch to photograph because the first batch disappeared far too quickly; They’re that moreish!
Ingredients (makes about 12)
You will need a special canelé mould to make these. The best are made from copper, although I used silicon.
400ml milk
20g salted butter
2 egg yolks
1 egg
140g sugar (I used cane sugar)
120g flour (I used spelt flour)
1 vanilla pod
10cl rum
A little extra butter for greasing the moulds
Beat the egg yolks, egg and sugar in a mixing bowl. Add the flour and vanilla and continue to mix gently. Bring the milk to the boil in a saucepan, remove from the heat and immediately add the butter. When the milk has cooled to lukewarm, add to the other ingredients in the mixing bowl. Mix well. Leave the mixture to rest in the fridge for at least 24 hours, 48 hours if possible. This is important as the mixture must be as ‘airless’ as possible or it will rise during cooking. Also for this reason, it must always be mixed gently, taking care not to add too much air.
To cook the canelés, preheat the oven to 220°C. Remove the mixture from the fridge and very gently stir the (what will now be separated) batter until homogenous. Add the rum at this stage too. Fill the buttered moulds about 7/8 full. Cook for 10 minutes at 220°C and then turn the oven down to 190°C. Cook for a further 40 minutes. Leave to cool before eating.
13 Comments
Chez Foti
Oh what a treat! These are truly gorgeous, and unusual, wee cakes ….but pretty hard to get the right caramelisation on the outside and custard on the inside. So worth the effort though. Lovely photo of them too, shame you had to bake another batch to get it eh!
The Healthy Epicurean
You can imagine how gutted I was at having to cook more 😉 It is quite tricky to get the right caramelisation so you do have to make quite a few…
apuginthekitchen
Wow those are gorgeous, you are the Queen of Spelt. You should write a cookbook with all of your lovely recipes using spelt. Love those little cakes.
The Healthy Epicurean
Thanks 🙂 I sometimes think I’m a bit obsessive about spelt, but it’s such a great alternative to wheat, which I can’t tolerate and I’m so glad to have found something that behaves in the same way as wheat flour for baking…
Fig & Quince
Wow, must put “walk through streets of Bayonne” on bucket list. (It’s hard to believe that there used to be a world without chocolate. How barren it must have been!) The canelés look awesome by the way.
The Healthy Epicurean
You mean it’s not already on your bucket list! 😉 I can’t even begin to imagine how dull a world without chocolate can have been…
Fig & Quince
ha ha, yeah, I mean, what was the point, how did they live? ps hope all your critters are doing well!
The Healthy Epicurean
The critters are all well thank you – noisy, but well!
annelifaiers
Ho pretty and I’ll bet delicious too! I quite fancy a mould like that and these would be so lovely as part of a canape party. I am inspired, thank you!
The Healthy Epicurean
They’re really moorish but quite tricky to cook exactly right. I love the moulds – even for other things. You’ll find them in any French supermarket (certainly in the south-west anyway).
laurasmess
The flavours in these sound amazing… rum, cane sugar, vanilla and butter… oh my!! I’ll have to have a look around for a canele mould. Love the look of your spelt flour treats. I also agree that spelt is a wonderful grain. So delicious, so easy to process and… I just love the rustic wholegrain flavour it has. Would love to make these! xx
The Healthy Epicurean
Thank you Laura! If you do manage to find a canelé mould I really hope that you enjoy them as much as we did.
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