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.