- Hey guys, today we are making a delicious,
French treat known as a canele.
Now caneles originate from the city of Bordeaux
in southwestern France and they are one delectable morsel.
They are known for their crunchy exterior
and the delicate, custardy interior.
It's quite a taste sensation.
A canele is a tricky dessert to master
but not to worry, I'm gonna share with you
all of my tips and tricks so that you too,
can master this French delicacy in your own kitchen.
Okay so first up, let's tackle the mold.
So across the Internet, there is lots of lively debate
on which mold is best to use for a canele.
So I figured I owe you my opinion
and I'm gonna weigh in on the subject.
So if you're gonna go the traditional route
and use a copper mold, which is most traditional,
you'll find a few things.
One, they're super expensive.
You get four molds for about $50,
so you have to really be invested in making a canele
to spend that kind of money, I think.
However, they are charming and they are the
traditional thing that is used in France.
But I find them to be very inconsistent and here's why.
Sometimes you get a nice, crusty exterior and sometimes not.
They're difficult to clean.
So if you go in there with a sponge,
you scrub too hard, you'll start to wear away
the protective coating inside the copper
and then if you bake with them,
that will lead to really splotchy caneles
so not such a big fan of the copper.
Okay next up, the silicone mold.
Now these would be the most affordable.
You can usually get one of these molds
for anywhere from nine to $15 online
but I find that you are not gonna get that
crusty exterior with these molds,
no matter how long you leave them in the oven.
If you don't really care about the crusty exterior,
and you just want the custardy interior,
then these are a good one to try,
if you just want to have fun with it.
They do taste delicious, I will give them that.
And then the third one,
which in my opinion is the clear winner
is the non-stick carbon steel pan.
I look at it as like a hybrid.
You get the nice, conductive heat of the metal,
like you would get with the copper
but then you also get the convenience of a mold,
so you have 12 wells in this mold,
so you can make a whole batch at one time.
I love it because it consistently creates that
hard exterior, that caramelized, crunchy exterior,
which is so hard to get but not with this pan.
I found that this one was just consistently great,
super easy to clean because of it's non-stick finish
and you can pick one up for under $30.
So these were my findings.
I'll leave links in the description to all of these pans
if you want to try them yourselves and see what you think.
I would love to know what your results are
so definitely leave me a comment
and let me know how you do.
Okay, now that that's all out of the way,
let's make the batter.
So in a large sauce pan,
you're going to add two cups of milk,
one vanilla bean, that you have scraped of it's seeds
and you can go ahead and add the paste and the pods.
Three tablespoons of butter.
Now if you live in the states, I say to use salted butter
but if you live outside of the states,
I would use unsalted and just increase the
salt quantity to another quarter teaspoon.
I say that because here in the states,
our butter isn't actually that salty, it's more flavorful
but outside the states, I know salty butter is pretty salty.
And you're also gonna add half a cup of white sugar.
So you're gonna whisk that all up until combined
and once that butter starts to melt,
you'll also see all of those vanilla seeds
start to rise to the surface,
that's when you know it's done.
And then you can go ahead and fish out the vanilla bean
and you want to let your milk mixture cool down a bit
and then meanwhile, in a large bowl,
you're gonna use three egg yokes,
half a teaspoon of salt, which you would increase
to three quarters teaspoon of salt
if you're using the unsalted butter.
Now, in a traditional canele,
you would use rum for the flavoring.
But I have found that I really don't like that
alcoholic after taste in baked goods like this
so I found that the rum extract is so much better.
You actually, ironically, get more run flavor
with the extract than the actual rum
and the extract is much cheaper,
it's a few dollars verses a $25 bottle of rum
that you may use once a year.
So I say go for the extract.
Now for any of you that don't drink and would be concerned
about alcohol, the rum extract does actually have
a little bit of alcohol in it, so it is something to note.
Then, you're gonna go back to your milk mixture
and you're going to temper your egg yokes,
just slowly pouring it in, whisking all the while.
Then we are going to add a cup of all purpose flour.
Now the secret with the flour is just to add
a little bit at a time,
cause if you dump the whole thing in there,
you end up with a really thick, almost pasty-like mixture
because this mixture is hot.
It starts to activate the thickening agent of the flour
and you end up with a bit of a paste.
So easy does it and you'll still end up
with a smooth, thin mixture.
Then we want to strain this mixture into a
four cup Pyrex pitcher, and then that way
it'll be really easy to pour this batter into our mold
when it's time to bake.
Okay, so now this leads us to my next tip.
Resting the batter.
So if you notice, most canele recipes out there
will say to let the batter rest in the refrigerator
for anywhere from 24 to 48 hours.
I have to say, this is exactly true.
If you try to bake this right away,
and I have tried it, because I'm an impatient cook,
I really wanted to get to the bottom of it
and see what would happen.
This is what happens, you end up with a pop-over,
so that the batter rises up,
all the batter balloons out and you end up
with these really, misshapen, strange looking caneles.
It's a disaster so don't do that.
Now, if you go the full 48 hours,
if you can wait and do the 48 hours, it's even better
cause what that does, it creates an even shinier exterior,
which prevents the need from having to use the beeswax.
So there's lots of discussion online
whether you need the beeswax or don't need the beeswax,
which is something that you would melt
and actually line the pans with.
Personally, I found it really difficult to find
food grade beeswax and sometimes it can be deceiving
whether it's cosmetic grade, food grade,
so I didn't want you guys to have to go through all of that
so I have another tip for you.
We are gonna be using baking spray.
So I found that baking spray over butter,
creates a nice, shiny exterior.
And then you can go in with a pastry brush
and make sure you're getting into
all those nooks and crannies.
Okay, then you need to decide how big you want your caneles.
So if you fill them up, just a little bit past
three quarters of the way,
you'll end up with a nice, tall canele.
If you go halfway, they'll still be good and delicious
and you'll end up with a shorter one.
So this recipe will make 12 small caneles
but if you want them a little bit bigger,
then do six or eight.
Then we are going to put these in a 450 degree
Fahrenheit oven to begin, for exactly 10 minutes.
At that point, you want to reduce the oven
to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and you're gonna let that go
for about 30 to 35 minutes,
just until those tops become nice and golden brown.
And this is what I really love about this pan,
once the tops are golden brown,
you know that the sides are.
I found with the other molds,
the top could be really gorgeously golden brown
but then the exterior was not.
So what you see is what you get with this pan.
And I say wait 30 to 40 minutes
before actually serving them.
This will give the center, which is pretty custardy,
a chance to set up.
If you serve them right away,
that custard can kind of ooze out
and you'll think they're not done
but they actually set up, the longer you sit.
Now if you'd like to learn how to make
a fool proof madeleine, you can click this video here
and I'll see you over there.
All right you guys, I'll see you back here next week.
Hope you enjoy, until then, bye.