Friday, October 6, 2017

Canelés de Bordeaux (Crispy Baked French Custards) – Hold the Mold!

I’ve wanted to do a Canelés de Bordeaux video forever, but just never got around to buying the specially designed molds that they require. After seeing a picture of them online a few days ago, I decided this would be the week, and headed out to the one store near me I knew carried the necessary hardware.

Since it was actually a hardware store that also carries lots of kitchen equipment, I figured they would have the beeswax, as well. I’ve been in that store at least a hundred times, and I would anyways see the canelé molds beckoning me, but never pulled trigger, since I was usually looking for something else.

So, you can imagine my shock when I walked down that aisle, as I’d done so many times before, only to find they were no longer stocked. Thanks a lot, Amazon. Anyway, purely out of spite, I decided to make them anyway, using a regular muffin pan, and the results were pretty amazing.

As long as you cook them long enough, the muffin tin works great, assuming you don’t care about getting the classic shape. Since this was an experiment, I only did six, but I’ve scaled the recipe below to make 12. I’m not sure how many real canelé molds this recipe will fill, but it’s probably close to that. Either way, I really hope you give these a try soon. Enjoy!


Ingredients for 12 Canelé de Bordeaux:
2 cups whole milk
2 tablespoons plus one teaspoon unsalted butter
1 cup white granulated sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, or 1/8 teaspoon of fine salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup rum

For greasing pan:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons beeswax

- Bake at 450 F. for 10 minutes, then at 375 F. for about 50 minutes more, or until well browned.

-- NOTE: These only stay crispy for about 8 hours. So, fair warning if you plan to make them a day ahead. I've never tried to re-crisp. 

32 comments:

inchrisin said...

I'm seeing a lot of 'cosmetic grade' beeswax. Is this the same as 'food grade'?

Unknown said...

Can i not use rum ?

coco said...

Hello chef, I am in a country prohibits rum and I also do not drink it. SO, what can I substitute rum with? I really appreciate all your videos. Thank you.

Sofie230 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

These look amazing!
I'm curious to hear if anyone has tried making this without beeswax. Are there any substitutes? If you omit bees wax altogether do you get a similar finished product with a softer exterior?

Marshellemallow said...

Chef John! How did you clean the beeswax from your pan?

Unknown said...

Just made these, and they are delicious - I am not sure I made them quite right though - they puffed up a bit in the oven and then collapsed when I took them out -are they supposed to do that ?

NSD said...

Cannot find food grade beeswax for the life of me. I've tried farmers' market, "health" stores, supermarkets. And amazon only has "cosmetic grade" stuff. Any thoughts? :(

Civil Librarian said...

Chef John! First of all, these look amazing but, when you scraped the canele with the fork, I said out loud, "Say it!" with great anticipation. You know, "Fork don't lie". One of the very few disappointing moments on Food Wishes... ;)

Unknown said...

What about the portugese pastel de nata? Can we use this mix for the filling?

Roberto said...

Amazon says "You're welcome". They have an 8 cavity mold for about ten bucks and you can have it to your door in two days via Amazon Prime, free shipping. It is likely to take longer than that to round up food grade bees wax.

Amazon also has small sized molds as well as a "mini" version. I suspect your hardware store doesn't.

Amy said...

All ingredients were easy to find. They were spectacular!

ElicitingAuthenticity said...

Okay, first off, simmer down Sophie230--pretty sure no one has a gun to your head forcing you to make the recipe to exacts...

For those of us who aren't personally insulted by the ingredient suggestion: I used cosmetic grade white beeswax when I made 'em--found it by the essential oils at a natural foods store--so far neither my husband nor I have died. Google says that cosmetic grade is used to make chapstick so I figured it was close enough. Soooo happy with the result and will probably make these regularly :D :D

Andrew Paulo said...

You should take a look at the Portuguese Queijadas De Leite if you've never tried them. Lot of similarities with the recipe. The Queijadas have the same crispiness on the outside, but a little softer on the top, and a more smooth texture on the inside. This is the recipe I usually use:

http://azoreangreenbean.com/2017/08/milk-tarts-queijadas-de-leite/

GW said...

I have a popover pan, I wonder if that would be closer to traditional.

Gemfyre said...

Is that a mini muffin tin? They don't look full size.

I have a large chunk of beeswax that I use for making moisturisers and beeswax wraps - I don't suppose that is food grade? Although I'm not sure what about it would make it unsafe to consume. It's much harder than the stuff you have in a tin there.

matgrif said...

Dear lord people, just acquire some honeycomb or honey with the honeycomb in it. There's your beeswax. Also I find honey to be an acceptable flavor alternative to the rum, although I prefer the rum. Enjoy!

Alisa said...

I want to send these to a friend. How long do they keep?

Anonymous said...

I found beeswax with a local honey producer. Now, how to remove the beeswax from your pans? Boiling water will get it. Maybe I used too much wax or ate too many of my finished product, because I also had a wax coating in my mouth! An easy recipe.

Unknown said...

I used melted coconut oil instead of butter and beeswax. Also I substituted Splenda for sugar and 1/4 cup water with 1/4 tsp. rum extract for the rum..Came out brown and hard crispy exterior with creamy custardy almost caramel flavor interior.. Very good!

Unknown said...

I tried this recipe today and have to say that I am totally disappointed. I can taste the beeswax on my mouth. Not worth the effort. Sorry Chef John, I’m a big fan of yours but this doesn’t work. I used muffin tin as well. Maybe if I used the real containers I wouldn’t have to use beeswax. Don’t like the taste of wax.

Carlsson said...

Replacement for Bees Wax – Beef Tallow !
I did this today - Very Tasty and Crispy...

Unknown said...

Wound up minding my bees wax at the hardware store. Would paraffin wax work? I had to pull them out of the over 10 minutes early as they were close to burning. Flavor was great with an eggy sweet center. The hardest thing was cleaning wax out of muffin tins.

Eleanor said...

As a French gourmet, i won't say anything for the muffin pan if you don't say anything about the following : most of the French pâtissiers use cooking spray instead of Bees wax to make canelés. Just spray into your molds, turn them upside down on a cooking rack for a few minutes to remove excess oil and voilà ! Molds are ready.

Bruce said...

HI Chef. Recipe says 4 egg yolks, video says 2. Which is correct? I can't believe nobody else has asked this question. Thanks

Alisa said...

@ Bruce Meyer...I caught it. However after watching the video you will note that Chef John made a half batch. Best of luck!

Unknown said...

Hi Chef John,

I wanted to give you money on Patreon.com today, but I couldn't find you there?

Anonymous said...

I just got my beeswax in from Amazon. Got 5oz. of it for just a few bucks. It's tripple filtered cosmetic grade but it looks and smells like beeswax. So I think you'll be ok.

Unknown said...

For most of the questions here: I substituted honey 1:1 for the rum. I substituted cooking spray for the butter/beeswax mix. I also had to pull the muffin tins out of the oven about 10 minutes early. Everything came out perfect. Thanks, Chef John!

Unknown said...

Love your work mate

Mark said...

I broke even MORE rules: I used aluminum muffin tins and sprayed them with Pam instead of using beeswax. It worked! I was seriously nervous that they would stick to the little folks in the pan but they came out fine and treated great. Served them with done heavy cream and done caramel sauce and they were Divine!

bakeMe said...

I’m happy to have found this recipe. For a long time I’ve used a French recipe which called for the mix to be refrigerated for two days. Your recipe was quick and easy and produced perfect Canelé. I bought individual copper moulds from France at great expense; happy I did tho may not have if I had come across this earlier. I get my pure beeswax from a candle shop, a Steiner school supplier and also a beekeeper when it’s available. To avoid the waxy mouth feel use it sparingly. I pour the hot mix quickly from one to the next, ( I use tongs) swirl and avoid too much in the bottom of the copper mould.
Thanks chef John. Re making them individual, I've flavoured them with kaffir lime, raspberry and other fruit flavors and added an icing with those same flavors over the top while hot. But the rum is still my favorite.