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Saturday, April 25, 2009

Cannelés

I cannot remember exactly the first time I ate a cannelé. I can only guess it was at Gordon Ramsay's restaurant in New York, where cannelé was offered on the bon bon trolley with coffee at the end of the meal. It was love at first bite and ever since then I want to make this little cake from the Bordeaux area of France. Cannelé is typically made with a tin lined copper mold and requires the use of beeswax to line the mold to create the glossy dark crust. Since I am not a professional baker, don't have the budget to buy copper molds, and lack the patience to melt beeswax, I need some alternative method.

Luckily Jacques Pepin has a recipe for cannelé in his book Chez Jacques. Pepin's recipe is relatively simple - essentially a crêpe batter with a lot of sugar. The only drawback is the batter requires refrigeration overnight, which means I cannot bake them at the spur of the moment. Pepin suggests using a silicone mold which makes the production much easier. The downside with the silicone mold is it doesn't produce a dark crust on the sides of the cannelé. Nevertheless the result is still quite good. I used to bake cannelés to serve as a petit four for my dinner parties. For some unknown reason cannelés are very addictive. Most of my friends and I can easily eat three or four very quickly.

Recently I walked by Pozzo Bakery at San Want Hotel on Zhong Xiao East Road, and to my surprise found cannelés for sale. I couldn't resist and bought a few; they were not bad. However at the price of NT$45 for one, it was an expensive snack. Therefore, I dug out my cannelé mold and started baking them again.

4 comments:

  1. I remembered your Cannele at the party. It was REALLY REALLY good. NT$45 for just one? you should start your own bakery !

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  2. I am just a home baker. For the more professional verson you should look at this site:

    http://fxcuisine.com/default.asp?language=2&Display=54&resolution=high

    Laiskonis of Le Bernardin also made some:

    http://mlaiskonis.typepad.com/workbook/2009/03/chasing-tradition.html

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  3. I recently got into making these. My results with a silicone pan were superb - checked out with my neighbor who is from Bordeaux so knows his way around this treat. I'm not a professional baker by a long shot, but home cooks might want to check out my page on canneles - they really are doable, although require planning as you note. Now you've got me craving them!

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  4. couldn't agree more on this fantastic dessert. I used to bake them back in London withe the copper mold. unfortunately they are now in the storage. Does anyone know where to get the copper mold in HK? is there any different in term of taste and tecture between copper and silicone? fxcuisine recipe looks good but never tried. but my all time favourite has to be Michel Roux.

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