Cannelés Bordelais

A real delight, (a.k.a. Canelé de Bordeaux) this is a pastry gem from the Bordeaux region. It's a bit weird and dull at first sight. But when you taste the crusty caramel outside and get to the soft, spongy inside and the elegant flavour of vanilla and rum – you're toast!

Cannelés done the right way are quite a complicated matter. However, you'll get great results if you choose to skip the road less traveled. With this recipe, these little delicacies are simple to make.

1/2 l milk

1 dl cream

50 g butter

1 vanilla pod

150 g flour

200 g sugar

3 eggs

2 egg yolks

1 dl brown rum

a little pinch of salt

Boil milk, butter and vanilla pod (split and scrape) and simmer for 10 minutes. Let cool. Combine flour and sugar, whisk eggs together and pour into the flour/sugar mix. Remove vanilla pod and pour in the milk. You can clean the vanilla briefly in running water and leave to dry. Put in a little glass with sugar and you'll have great vanilla sugar in a week, or so).

Whisk together and add rum and salt. Whisk well, cover with plastic and leave in fridge for at least 24 hours. The longer time, the better taste.

Pour in cannelé molds and bake in oven 200° C for 50-60 minutes. If you're using silicone molds, you don't need to butter them first. If you have copper molds, and want to do it the real way, you need to get hold of beeswax. You can also have a look at FX Cuisine (an eminent food blog) for visual aid.

If you think the cannelés are getting too dark, you can cover with a parchment paper or tin foil.

They are supposed to be medium brown with a caramel crust, but not burnt or too dark.