Ingredients
Directions
Le Canelé de Bordeaux originated in the 17th century, the nuns of the Couvent of the Annunciation in Bordeaux in Southern France started baking little pastries by using donated egg yolks from local wine makers who clarified their wines with the egg whites. These exceptional little confections made from basic ingredients were offered to the children in need.
Today, the popularity of the canelé reached out foreign countries and became a solid culinary reference in the French regional gastronomy. They are flavored with vanilla, dark rum or Grand Marnier or both with a soft and tender custard center and a dark, thick caramelized crust. Replace alcohol for orange blossom water or orange extract or almond extract or zests...
The Parisians have the macarons, and in Southern France, they have canelés. Millions of these treats are consumed each year. Canelés became so famous that they can be even bought in New York!.. To find canelé molds and pizza stone*, check my Shop Page.
Should we first-time seasoning canelé molds?
Canelé molds require seasoning before their first use. It's a simple process and only needs to be performed once. This can be done using the following procedure or simply use cooking spray. Heat up molds in the oven for 2 min. Grease molds with cooking spray, flip and bake in the oven 10 min. Cool, wipe off molds with paper towels and repeat this procedure once.
Using wax: Heat up brand new molds for 2 min at 375ºF/190ºC onto a baking tray lined with tin foil. After 2 minutes, remove the sheet from the oven (Wear oven-safe gloves). Carefully pour the plain melted beeswax or mixture of beeswax-clarified butter into one of the molds so it fills to the top. Pour the wax to the next mold. Place the seasoned mold open-side-down on a baking rack so the excess wax drips out to the tin foil. Continue until done. Save wax for the batch of canelé.
Next, place the molds back on the baking tray and bake at for 10 minutes. Let cool and repeat the entire seasoning process one more time.
How to avoid the 'Mushrooming' problem during baking?
The temperature of the milk should be added to the rest of the ingredients at 180/185ºF (80/85ºC). This prevents eggs to coagulate which decrease the risk of 'Mushrooming'.
How long should batter rest prior to baking?
Canelé batter should be resting for 12 hours at least in the refrigerator or up to 5 days. Leave batter at room temp for at least 2 hours before baking. If batter is too cold, temperature of the oven will drop and canelé may end up underdone in the center.
How far up should molds be filled?
Here is the deal, canelé molds should rather be filled almost to the top, otherwise they will end up too small. Leave a little space though, just about 0.20''/0.5cm from the top. This recipe fills twelve (2.5''/5cm) canelé molds.
Convection or conventional oven?. both work. Back in the days, canelés and all pastries were in fact baked in deck ovens (four a sole). If using conventional oven at home, I found out that baking canelés onto a pizza stone contributes to better results. Indeed, the stone accumulates the heat ensuring faster caramelization from bottom to the sides up.
Lastly, using conventional or convection oven, baking temperature should be the same from start to finish. At 425ºF/220ºC for 60 minutes using conventional, and 375ºF/190ºC for 55 min using convection.
When it comes to baking canelés, copper canelé molds remain the best option. Copper is best to create the brown crust that canelé are known for. In this picture, you can see the layers created by the beeswax-butter mixture on the bottom cake. It looks like puff pastry layers!... Aluminum canelé molds offer descent results and are on budget. Nonstick canelé molds are also good. As it goes for silicone canelé molds, they lack of spacing between each cavity. In addition, silicone does not conduct heat well. Though, some professionals manage to obtain great results using silicones molds. But here is the trick, they are baked using powerful convection ovens...
Avoid greasing canelé molds using beeswax only. For ultimate results, copper or aluminum canelé molds should be greased with a mixture of melted beeswax and butter. For 12 copper canelé molds, use 40g beeswax and 60g butter. Make more for backup if desired. Beeswax must be slowly melted in a small saucepan with butter. Use super hot. Do not microwave beeswax. Fill up each mold* with hot beeswax mixture – one at the time. Reheat if necessary. Flip mold immediately over the remaining beeswax mixture. Do likewise until done. Protect your hands with cloves if needed. If you can't find beeswax, here is a great alternative used by many professionals and it works for all type of molds. Brush them out with a fair amount of softened butter first and cooking spray (do not use clarified butter, butter wont burn unless pastries are forgotten in the oven). Chill molds until ready to use.
*To use less beeswax mixture, copper molds can be heated up in the oven for 3 minutes. Grease with beeswax-butter mixture. Flip molds to drain onto a cooling rack with parchment placed underneath. Chill to set.
Vanilla powder, paste or extract can be used as well. For the bean, cut lengthwise and scrap seeds out. Throw seeds and pod in the milk, and bring to a boil. Turn off heat and add cold butter. Meanwhile, combine flour with sugar, and beat eggs in a separate pastry bowl. When milk temperature reaches 185ºF/85ºC, slowly temper eggs with half of the milk. Add it to the flour-sugar mixture; mix well. Add remaining milk and alcohol. Refrigerate batter for 12 hours at least before baking. Pass through a sieve, and save vanilla pod, rinse and let dry out.
Canelé mixture can be kept refrigerated for up to 3 days. Leave batter out for about 2 hours or more before filling up prepared molds. Always stir up canelé mixture before using.
*Using conventional oven: Preheat oven with a rectangle pizza stone to 425ºF/220ºC. Fill the greased molds with batter to 0.20''/0.5cm from the top. Bake canelés for 60/65 minutes. They must be well done in order to get the desired brown caramelized crust.
Using a convection/fan oven: Bake canelé at 375ºF/190ºC for about 55 minutes (no need for pizza stone).
Remove canelés from the oven, and let rest 5 minutes. To remove canelé from mold, turn over and bang canelé mold, and let cool on cooling rack. Canelé is best eaten within 6 hours after been baked. As the day goes by, the crust softens up. So, they are still good a day after but without the wow effect!.. Baked canelés can also be stored in the freezer for awhile. Before eating, place pastries 5 minutes in a hot oven and leave them at room temp for 10 minutes. Enjoy!
Only silicone molds can be thrown in the dishwasher. Copper and aluminum molds should not be washed using detergent, simply wipe with a dry cloth or a paper towel while still warm after each use. At the last resort, molds can be cleaned immersed in boiling water and a couple drops of soap for 20 minutes or so. Finish cleaning under running water with a non-abrasif device, rinse and dry out.
16 thoughts on “Canelé”
Always gorgeous, great ever.
How do I make a Canele that is creamy inside and tastes like Crème Brulee’? The ones I see in photos look like bread on the inside and the ones I ordered were like cake inside.
Well, a canelé is indeed a baked-in-mold custard. However, the inside of this delicacy should have a butter-colored interior, shot through with small bubbles, has the texture of thick pastry cream…
The most successful batter I used so far. Recipes from other places always had an uncontrolled mushrooming problem where the batter inflated until they became muffins. Some batters even overflowed into the tray before developing into mushrooms.
I still could not master the recipe though. My batter seemed to have a mild mushrooming problem. It seems most of the beewax mixture escapes from the cooper mold by the time the baking was over. The oven tray was overflowing with the liquid. Also the top of the canele was yellow and undercooked.
Looks like the batter was airborne in the cooper mold and the top part of the canele did not make a long enough contact with the mold during baking. The inside was very creamy, and I think it was probably undercooked.
I was baking with a cheap Walmart toaster oven. Ahaha.. I need to experiment more. I think I’ll perfect the recipe if I can prevent the batter from going airborne in the molds.
Thank you for sharing your experience. Indeed my canelé recipe works. I am glad though that you have found the problem. There is no way canelé can be properly baked in that type of ”oven”🙄
In preparation to make these I wanted to experience what they taste like. So, I visited a patisserie. Their canelé were gorgeous and delicious. But the top was hollow, and the bottom was soft. Is that a thing, or is it a fault? BTW, their patisseries were gorgeous, but your flavors are better!
Hi Edward, thank you for your kind comment. Well, canelé should not en up being hollow. My recipe tells the whole story about it!
This has been my GO-TO canelé recipe for years although I don’t make it often enough because it’s so delicious and I’m worried about overeating. I still have that mushrooming effect happening but will try to get the milk to the right temperature the next round.
I use a convection oven but I want to try putting a thick cookie sheet under my mold and bake it on the lower rack in the oven, to get the tops evenly darker. previously it’s always been mostly blond or unevenly blond when I baked it in the middle rack and without a preheated cookie sheet under it. and I guess it’s also caused by the mushrooming.
I’ve tried a few other recipes but always come back to this one cos it works so well! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and tips with us. Really appreciate it. Love your channel and recipes.
I’ve been using your ‘old’ recipe for years with great results. I’ve tried several other recipes and yours produced the best results. Might I say that I’ve been to Laduree´and the Canele I’ve made with your recipe are better than what I had there. Your ‘old’ recipe calls for 30g cornstarch, 45g butter, 80g egg yolks and no whole eggs, and 120g flour. How do the results differ? Maybe I’ll try this recipe next time.
I have been obsessed with eating canele for many years. This year I became obsessed with learning to make them. I have tried so many recipes that have yielded poor results until I found your recipe! My canele are now perfect! Merci beaucoup!
I have now used this recipe 4 additional times! The only issue I am having is that the butter that drips onto the baking stone causes the oven to smoke like crazy. It literally sets of every smoke alarm even with the exhaust fan running on high and a couple of windows open. Is there a way to prevent this from happening or reduce the amount of smoke?
Yes. You never bake canelé straight over a pizza stone. Where did you see that nonsense idea?.. Always use a baking tray underneath!!!
Big fan. I used to have a set of molds but they ended up in a donation box instead of a moving box unfortunately. I recently bought a silicone mold of mini canelé to do a fun spin off your tiramisu canelé episode, and will have to tag your social when I do it, thank you so much for the inspirations. What time/temp would you recommend with mini silicone molds in a convection oven?
Hi there!
Well, silicone molds for canelé behave much better in a convection oven indeed. It’ll take about the same time 50 mins to an hour for the regular one. About 15 mins less if using mini ones 🌝
By far the best canelé recipe I have tried!
Any ideas on how to make a chocolate version of this?
Well, some have tried to make fancier versions of the canelé; rather inconclusive. The canelé is, and should remain a crusty caramelized vanilla custardy type of cake which is its original purpose. In my knowledge, a chocolate version wont work 😌