Author: joepastry

Ooops…gotta go!

Business calls up in Chicago, but I’ll be back on Monday with more cannelés! In the meantime let’s enjoy a few selections that reflect the new wave of acoustic music that’s currently sweeping the globe. Specifically a little of the gypsy, Django Reinhardt-inspired melodies of Monsieur Periné. Lovely, no? My favorite gang of acoustic master musicians is Hot Club of Cow Town (also doing well on the Continent these days). They inject a little Texas twang into theirs, but what I ask you could possibly be wrong with that? These guys can play. As a one-time rockabilly upright bass player myself, I love how that man can slap! Back soon – Joe.

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Joe! Stop! We beg you!

No, no, I’m not going to stop as I’m feeling better about failing than succeeding at the moment. I appreciate all the good-intentioned folks out there asking me to please, just follow Chez Pim or Paula Wolfert’s instructions to the letter and everything will be alright. The problem is that I have a very good idea about what’s at the end of those roads, and I just don’t enjoy it. It’s very dense and custardy and I just don’t see the French getting very excited about that. Not enough to justify 100 years of baking tradition. So I’m going to keep working.

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Cannelés Attempt 2

So here I’ve baked up my cannelé batter, treating it more like a sweet popover. Lots of agitation, baking right away on high heat. Here’s what I got when my 35 minutes are up. Hey this is looking promising…maybe go a little lighter on the batter next time, fortify it with some more sugar and…

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Next Attempt: The Popover Method

Readers Chana, Charm and others have remarked on the cannelé’s similarity to the popover, and indeed they are correct. Cannelé batter is very, very similar to popover batter, save for the fact that it’s much sweeter. I find that an interesting direction to try next since as I mentioned below, these first cannelés were far to dense for my liking. I much prefer a more open, lighter crumb of the kind I see in this Wikipedia photo.

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Cannelés Attempt 1

So here’s what happened with the first attempt. They came out looking good, at least the ones baked in the copper molds. The were dark, shiny (yes, I used beeswax, reader June!) and very crunchy on the exterior. It’s the inside that didn’t work for me. Too custard-y and wet. See those holes? They’re flat bubbles where the batter rose then collapsed under its own weight. Not enough structure to hold them up.

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Cannelé Recipe #1

So here’s what I did in this attempt if you’re curious. The original recipe I received is below (scroll down). In the interest of eliminating bubbles I removed the white and substituted 2 yolks, then baked low for the first 45 minutes in an attempt to get the structure to set before it was all blown out by expanding steam.

16 ounces (2 cups) whole milk
1 ounce (2 tablespoons) butter
5 egg yolks
8.75 ounces (1 1/4 cups) sugar
4.5 ounces (1 cup) cake flour
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon rum

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The Thinking So Far

So OK, I’ve been mulling these over for a couple of days and I have my action plan together. It goes like this: first, I’m going to lower the heat. Reader Jim H’s provocative comment from late last week got me thinking. Why bother with a very hot oven at all…at least to start? Why not start low and let the eggs set — and allow the steam to steadily escape — instead of the rocket-hot traditional way that causes any bubbles in the batter to expand explosively?

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What’s the big deal with bubbles?

And why are they such a problem with cannelés? So asks reader Ronnie, and it’s a question well worth answering. After all, almost all cakes — both large and small — are filled with bubbles. They don’t explode, why do cannelés? Well Ronnie, the problem is the shape of the molds. They’re tall and narrow rather than broad and flat, the shape of most cake and cookie molds. And that’s a problem when it comes to expanding gas and steam. Normally the expanding gasses in, say, a financier can escape out the top and to a lesser extend the sides, which together make up a considerable surface area.

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Processing…processing…

My plan was to have at least a few examples of cannelés up today, but I changed my mind on the process so many times over the weekend I never got around to any actual baking. And today rain poured down all day, meaning there was precious little of the natural light I rely on […]

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