Canelés from Bordeau

Bordeau is the city of wine in France. But it has more than wine to offer.
Canelés are another of their specialty.
It is a pastry well appreciated, since the 18th century. The pastry is a melting heart well-coated with a crunchy caramel crust.
You will love this pastry which is a perfect mix between vanilla and rum.

The invention of this pastry is well linked to wine making; the confection of wine in Bordeau use to need white of eggs mixed in order to filter the wine.
The legend says that the eggs were separated from castle staff and the yellow was given to nuns in a convent.
It is said that they used the yolks and finally created those pastries.
In France, Canelé is eaten during breakfast, as a snack or as a dessert. It is perfect to be eaten with all type of beverage. Champagne, wines, teas or just milk.

I would like to share this great recipe with you.

Ingredients :

- 1/2 liter of whole milk

- 25 gr of butter

- 2 eggs yolks

- 1 whole egg

- 250 gr of brown sugar

- 125 gr of flour

- Seeds of a vanilla whole clove

- 60 ml of dark rum

- Pinch of salt

Preparation :

Boil the milk with the butter and the vanilla. Then, let it cool down and reserve.

In a big bowl, whist the eggs yolk with the whole egg and the sugar.

Then add the flour and the salt. Mix well.

Add very slowly the milk cooled down into the mixture and continue to gently mix in the same time, until all the ingredients are well mixed (it is important to pour a warm milk and not hot to not cook the first mixture).

Add the rum and put the preparation in the fridge for 24 hours. (It is very important to let the mixture sit in the fridge for the air to get out. If there is too much air, the Canelés will blow up and we don't really want that to happen.)

For the Canelés mold, you can use the silicone molds, they are very good and you don't need to grease them. If you choose those, pour the mixture into the molds at 3/4. Then put them on a shelf on the bottom of the oven.

If you choose to bake them the old fashion way with copper molds, you need to butter them well first.

So bake them first at 300ºC (570ºF) if you can, 280ºC (530ºF)  is what most of the oven propose as a maximum temperature. Use the maximum, but not more than 300ºC (570ºF) during 5 minutes (precisely).

Then drop the temperature down at 180ºC (355ºF) during an hour.

You can eat them when they are still warm or you can wait until they cool down. 

They are delicious.

Note : 

You can use in your ingredients, 1/2 teaspoon of bitter almond, or 100 gr of almond powder.

If you like chocolate, it exist a variant of the Canelés, adding 20 gr of cacao powder.