Cannelés de Bordeaux

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Today I have a big honour to guest post at the wonderful Ping’s Pickings blog. Ping is one of my dearest blogging friends and one of the rare people who always make me laugh with her hilarious style and unique sense of humour. Thanks to Ping’s wide-ranging culinary interests, her posts are always surprising and often result in an amazing discovery, such as the excellent Coconut Pie, which under the name of Coconut Cake has become a staple in my house or the incredible Rum and Carrot Cocktail I have written about in my previous post. Since Ping is particularly fond of unusual patterns and originally shaped pastry (I still get hypnotised looking at these spirals), I have decided to write about cannelés de Bordeaux, hoping their cute shape brings a smile to Ping’s face.

Cannelés (or canelés) de Bordeaux are one of my favourite sweet treats and it would be difficult to say which aspect I appreciate the most. Their taste, aroma, texture and even the beautiful shape are all irresistible. I still remember the first time I tasted them. I loved their rich flavours and was totally blown away by their extraordinary, springy softness. As their name suggests, cannelés come from Bordeaux in France, but they are very popular all around the country and also become famous abroad (I have recently seen a Japanised version on Shizuoka Gourmet blog). Different sources quote different origins, but all agree that the characteristic shape, as well as the obligatory vanilla and rum presence are quite recent and date back to the beginning of the XXth century.

Cannelés are not really difficult, but they require patience, close attention during the long baking process, they do not accept shortcuts and every modification is a big risk. French websites, forums and blogs are full of cannelé recipes and related tips, but I must admit that I had to go through several failed experiments before I found a method that works with my oven and my silicone moulds. From my experience a big amount of rum as well as 24 hours refrigeration are necessary to obtain the optimum taste and texture. Apparently old-fashioned copper moulds guarantee the best results, but they are not easy to use and I am perfectly happy with the cannelés I obtain with very convenient silicone moulds. I have adapted my recipe from the one featured on Marmiton.

Please do not forget to check my post on Ping’s Pickings!

TIPS: Here are some ideas to use up 2 leftover egg whites you will be left with:

Chewy Coconut Cookies

Easy Chewy Hazelnut Cookies

Financiers

Scallops Fried in Nori

Sesame Crusted Chicken Nuggets

Preparation: 15 min + 24 hours in the fridge + about 1h30

Ingredients (makes 18-20 cannelés):

500 ml (2 cups) milk 

25 g (a bit less than 1 oz) butter

pinch of salt

200 g (1 cup) sugar

100 g (about 3/4 cup) flour

100 ml (about 0,4 cup) white rum

1 vanilla pod (sliced in two, lengthwise)

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

In a big bowl combine the flour, the eggs, the yolks, the sugar and the salt.

Pour the milk into a pot, add the butter and the vanilla pod.

Bring to boil.

Pour the boiling milk mixture into the bowl and combine with the remaining ingredients, constantly stirring.

When the batter has cooled down, take out the vanilla pods and scrape off the grains into the bowl, discarding the empty pods.

Add the rum, give the batter a stir and put into the fridge (covered) for 24 hours.

The following day preheat the oven to 250°C.

Fill the baking moulds up with the cold batter to the 2/3 of the height.

(If you make several batches put the remaining batter back to the fridge).

Put the moulds to the oven immediately and bake at 250°C (480°F) for 10 minutes.

Lower the temperature to 180°C (350°F) and bake for 50-60 minutes (in the case of my oven it’s only 50 minutes).

Take the cannelés out of the oven and let them cool completely before removing from the mould.

They should be browned outside, but still soft inside.

Cannelés keep fresh for three days (or maybe more but I have never had a chance to check…).

Published by Sissi

58 Replies to “Cannelés de Bordeaux”

  1. Hehe, here you are! … thanks so much, dear Sissi. You’re very kind to have helped me out. I’m just sorry I couldn’t take a bite out of the pic … sigh.
    I will one day make this for myself, when things are less hectic. I have tasted this before but it’s been so long ago. You’ve brought back memories of it and I’m drooling just wondering when I’m going to have this again 🙂

    1. Ping, it was a real pleasure and honour! And I’m also sorry you couldn’t take a real bite…

  2. I’m glad you said you went through several failed experiements making the perfect cannelés. I’ve only made them twice and the 2nd time they weren’t too bad but they were far from perfect. Time to practice again. 🙂

    1. Hi, Maureen. In my case the 24 hours in the fridge resolved the texture problem (more or less because they are still not as perfect as in good pastry shops), while the big amount of rum made them really luscious, although it’s a question of preference of course.

  3. Sissi,
    These look beautiful and delicious. Once again you have introduced me to something new. I’m heading to a kitchen shop at lunch and I’m tempted to buy some molds to try this out. It looks so good. And, once again you have great tips to use the leftovers!

    1. Thank you so much, Barb. They are delicious and the soft springy texture makes them somehow addictive… I’m addicted to moulds and buy every new form I see, so I remember when I made them for the first time I had the mould waiting for months 😉
      I am now really left with the two egg whites so I started to browse through me recipes too.

  4. Ah…les cannelés! Weird little sweets that only a few pastry chefs really master, even if they’re French. In fact, they can be heaven – or hell, the latter being chewy and bitter. I’m sure that yours are marvellous, Sissi! Thanks!

    1. Thank you for the compliments, Ullrich! I am, as always, very happy to see you here. I’m sure my cannelés are not perfect, but this is as close as I can get to the perfectly shaped ones bought in good pastry shops. On the other hand, I cannot get any good cannelés where I live, so I content myself with these 🙂

    1. Thank you so much, Jeno. Unfortunately the rum evaporates here, so only the wonderful aroma stays, but you can always have a glass of good rum cocktail with them 😉

  6. Mhhh, cannelés! I think you can be very proud of yourself because they look just like they are supposed to to me. Moist with an caramèl like colour outside. And your moulds did the job just right! 😉

    Cheers,
    Tobias

    1. Hi Zsuzsa, thank you! You are always more than welcome! Cannelés are simply incredible: they are like small, thick, slightly springy custards and addictive. I cannot compare them to anything I know.

  9. Hello Sissi, I’m over here from my friend Barb’s blog Profiteroles and Ponytails. We are real life friends and she often tells me about your posts and comments so I thought I would check you out myself.
    These are really beautiful and totally look like they would be worth the effort. Would you serve them with a sauce?

    1. Hi, Eva, welcome to my blog! I’m so flattered Barb talks about my blog! Thank you for the compliments! No, they are not the kind of sweets served with a sauce… They are rather of the kind you buy and eat while walking. They are a bit like small, slightly springy custards (the size is close to a muffin), when you press them they come back to their form, but when well made they are not very chewy. They are extraordinary!
      I remember now you asked me about low-fat cheesecakes made with fresh cheese (or curd cheese) on Charles’s blog! I don’t know if you have seen my answer, but here is the link to the baked one: http://www.withaglass.com/?p=7530 (I’m even making one tomorrow!). And here is the unbaked one: http://www.withaglass.com/?p=6728. I hope you try one of them. Thank you for visiting!

  10. This looks awesome, I have never heard of cannelés before. It has a good amount of rum. Your recipes are generous when it comes to the amount of alcohol, which is great:) I think I can see some cannelés in my life in the near future, hopefully!

    1. Thank you so much, Mr. Three-Cookies. I’m so relieved you are enthusiastic about the generous alcohol amounts rather than shocked 😉
      The original recipe called for 1 tablespoon rum only, but I felt something was missing in my first results, so I looked around the web and some cooks advised even bigger amounts of rum (150 ml). Finally I realised 100 ml was sufficient to give these treats an incredibly rich aroma.
      I hope you can taste (or test) them one day because something tells me you would like them… They have a very interesting, thick custard texture and I love pressing them with fingers to see how they come back to their previous shape. In short, they are exceptional.

      1. Interesting, so not only are they delicious to eat, they are also fun to play with:) This is great for (big) children, they can play with their food and when they get bored or tired they eat it

  12. Hi Sissi, had it not been for a home-made cannelé I had from a colleague once I think I normally would not be interested in these things at all, I’m sorry to say! I have had very bad experiences with them! I bought some once… the name sounded a bit like “cinnamon” in French, and it looked like they had a crispy, sugary shell. When I ate them… oh my God… it was like chewing on a car tyre. Every time people have brought some to work it has been the same experience (ones they bought) and I was really hating these chewy little lumps of rubber, but one day someone gave me one which they had made themselves. The difference is staggering and really changed my mind about them!

    A good cannelé is a wonderful thing – yours look golden and delicious and while I can’t see the inside I’m sure they must be fantastic (since it seems all the home-made cannelés I’ve tried are delicious successes, not like these disgusting bakery versions!).

    1. Thank you, Charles. I don’t know if mine are fantastic, but I hope they are better than the ones bought from a standard bakery/pastry shop. Don’t we all hope that when we make something at home it tastes better than bought? Of course I’m sure in Bordeaux there are much much better cannelés (but Bordeaux is not on my visiting list, I’m rather Burgundy wine fan 😉 ). My first experience was tasting cannelés brought from Bordeaux, so I loved them (but it was a long time ago).
      Your experience reminds me of a trip to Italy where my friends were surprised I didn’t want to go just to any pizzeria (“because we were in Italy”). We had a row, went to the first busy place we saw and the result was we have had the worst pizzas in our lives.
      Even though for me France has the best pastry in the world, I would never expect something great in a standard pastry shop (maybe apart from croissant, if it looked as if it was made with butter of course) because I know I would have 99% chances to taste something awful, not to mention such a regional and rather tricky thing as cannelé. Of course many French people don’t see the difference and this is how low quality bakers subsist, but then it’s even worse in most European countries.
      Maybe it’s also because of such a risk that my British friend advised me against buying Welsh pasties in a chain shop in London (she probably thought I wouldn’t like them and would assume all the pasties are alike).

  13. Great guest post, Sissi. Loving your cannelés, as they’re my favourites, especially with the crunch on the outside and the slightly gooey, RRRRRum interior. Wonderful! Raising a glass to you. J xo

  14. What a gorgeous and sophisticated looking dessert… the perfect punctuation on a special evening. Though I’ve never tasted Cannelés de Bordeaux, I have no trouble imagining its springy texture and I’m a total vanilla bean fan (not to mention rum ;-))… but it’s the colour of this dessert that is just so exquisite… I’m not one to exert myself in the kitchen – haha!! – but you know, these may just be worth it…. 🙂

    p.s. I agree, Ping is HI.larious!!

    1. Thank you so much, Kelly. It’s sometimes very difficult to explain the taste or texture and I wasn’t sure about the “springy” word, so I’m happy you have repeated it (it means it makes sense!). I am rather a fan of foolproof recipes (especially baked ones), but I can assure you these are worth the effort.

  15. I’ve been forbidden from enjoying white rum in the glutton house (one bad night), but this treat might just be my ticket to get a bottle back in the house! 🙂 Sounds good Sissi.

    1. Thank you, Sportsglutton. I am trying to imagine what has happened… Cannelés are definitely worth having a bottle of rum at home.

  17. I ll be getting an oven soon so I am looking forward to try your recipe. we use silicon moulds too (easy to use) and since u are saying that it took u some time to find a recipe which worked for you, I ll follow your advice.

    Enjoy a your weekend!

    1. Thank you so much, Giulia. You must be excited about your trip! Where do you go? (Do not buy them in cheap-looking pastry shop; otherwise you might be disappointed just like Charles was). I hope you have a nice stay!

  20. These do look very beautiful and I love the beautiful colour of them. They do sound a bit tricky though, a bit like the French macaron! I would be interested to try these though because they do look so gorgeous. xx

    1. Thank you so much, Charlie. They are not as difficult as macarons (I would never even dare trying these…) and I’m sure you would manage them perfectly.

      1. I’m not much of a baker as I’ve said many times before, so I’ve very carefully sidestepped the whole macaroon baking trend that’s seems to be very in right now.(plus the fact that I really dont like macaroons or meringues, so am very happy to see your other alternatives for eggwhites). I would say you probably would make bloody good macaroons if you can handle the caneles though, don;t be so modest sissi 😉

        1. Thank you, Shuhan. You are very kind, but I’m not even able to make meringues… I tried macarons twice and it was a huge disaster every time (I don’t even tell you how many times I tried meringues…). I also hate meringues (I tried making them for my husband) because they are horribly sweet. As for macarons it depends who makes them. If you ever have a chance to taste Pierre Hermé’s macarons, they are absolutely perfect and not too sweet (nothing to do with the famous Ladurée’s).
          Meringues have an obligatory big amount of sugar, otherwise the texture doesn’t work, but in macarons everything depends on the cream. (And maybe even the almond basis can be less sweet?).

          1. i have tried the pierre herme ones when i went to paris 2 years ago. I disliked them less, but iI wouldn’t go say I *liked* them, maybe I’m weird that way. haha.

            1. Oh, so you are probably not a fan of macarons as a concept. I have always loved the texture and the idea of macarons but always regretted that they were so horribly sweet (this is why I used to buy only dark chocolate or tangy red fruit ones), but I adore Pierre Hermé’s (discovering his macarons was for me almost like tasting foie gras for the first time!). I sometimes dream he opens a shop in my city… Unfortunately there is only Ladurée and it’s too sweet, especially now that I know another brand I like 🙂

  21. Hi Sissi! I’ll head over to Ping’s site soon, but I just wanted to say that you really work hard to get perfect recipes. Your dedication shows great creditability. These are beautiful treats. Okay off to check your guest post!

        1. When I said above “I have recently seen a Japanised version on Shizuoka Gourmet blog” I remembered they were with matcha, but I thought the batter was already with matcha! Thank you!

  25. Hi Sissi! Dropping by from Ping’s blog…it’s my first time here.
    I’ve never tasted Cannelés de Bordeaux. Reading your post makes me feel I’m missing a lot! Hope I could try your recipe soon.

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