Caneles Recipe

 

Canelés

These crispy, custardy pastries, which originated in Bordeaux, are based on our favorite canelé recipe from chocolateandzucchini.com. To bake them, use a silicone mold or the traditional individual copper canelé molds. I never tried the copper molds but the silicone mold works great.

Makes 20

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole milk
• 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, diced, plus more, melted, for brushing
• 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 3 large eggs, beaten to blend
• 1/3 cup dark rum

• Special Equipment:

  A 15-cavity silicone mold or 15 individual copper canelé molds

Preparation

• Combine milk and 2 Tbsp. butter in a medium saucepan. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean; add bean. Bring to a boil; remove from heat. Cover and let stand for 10 minutes. Discard vanilla bean.
• Whisk sugar, flour, and salt in a large bowl; set aside.
• Gradually whisk in eggs to the milk to combine. Gently and gradually incorporate the milk-egg mix into the flour mixture until blended. Whisk in rum. If some clumps remain, strain batter through a fine-mesh sieve into another medium bowl, pressing on any clumps of flour to push through.
• Let batter cool completely, uncovered. Cover and chill for at least 24 hours and up to 48 hours (the flavor after 48 hours is best).
• Arrange a rack in middle of oven and preheat to 450°. Lightly brush canelé molds with melted butter. Gently stir batter with a spatula (batter will separate). Fill prepared molds 2/3 of the way with batter, reserving half of batter for second batch.
• Bake canelés for 20 minutes at 450°. Lower oven temperature to 400° and bake, tenting molds with foil if canelés are browning too fast, until deep mahogany brown, 45–50 minutes longer.
• Remove canelés from oven and unmold onto a wire rack; let cool. Let molds cool, brush with more melted butter, and repeat with remaining batter. DO AHEAD: Can be made 6 hours ahead. Let stand uncovered at room temperature.

Note: The caneles are also delicious if baked the same day. Our oven is on the weak side so we baked the caneles for 20 minutes at 470° and 40-45 minutes at 405° with a foil on the mold for the last 20 minutes.