Category Archives: Cooking

The quest for Canele Batch No 4

July 25, 2015Cookingadmin

What did Yoda say? There is no try only do? I have been doing. This post is dedicated to Bridget’s sweet tooth from America’s test kitchen. I hope she sees this is and helps demystifies the science behind this delicious pastry.

I think this was the best recipe, but it was the worst experience I’ve had making them so far. I baked it in a pyrex dish thinking the heat from the dish would help with the baking. This may have worked if it was a heavy metal Le Creuset pan like my wife has, but I think it worked better with a wire rack sitting on a cookie sheet.

This time they came up really high over top of the molds. I let the batter rest 48 hours to try to avoid this. See how they start to get burnt just slightly on the top edges? This is the problem with them rising out, the top edges end up getting over baked. After taking them in and out of the oven 2 or 3 times I gave up. I decided to take a shower and finished baking them when I was done. After the prolonged rest they didn’t rise again, but they didn’t bake properly. The bottom left one had the most beeswax inside the mold and I think that’s why it’s caved in more then the others.

This is what the inside looked like. Because of the baking issues there was large pockets of air inside. I suspect that this pocket of space causes the pastry to rise out of the molds. I also think that the first 15 minutes sets these little pastries.

The next day I had just enough batter to make one Canele. This time I baked on a wire rack above a baking pan. I baked at 460 degrees for 15 min and then lowered to 400 and baked 45 min. Here is the result.

I thought this looked pretty good. and the bottom was flat. However it was over baked and more cake’ey inside then custard’ey. Here is a look at the inside.

Beeswax more is not better. This time I used a super thin coating of beeswax in the molds, and they baked more evenly. I find that too much causes the wax to pool and causes the center cave in.

The above were also noticeably lighter in weight the the others.

Below is a bit of show and tell from the professionals. This is the Canele from Gaby et Jules. They were made in Copper molds. Look at the depth of the pockmarked surface, tons of flavor there.

This is the inside view, It looks amazing! It tasted pretty good too.

This one is from the Little Red Fox in DC. They are made in silicone molds. My wife was kind enough to indulge me with all of these amazing photos. They would be suitable for a cookbook.

Recipe

Here is the recipe I’m using

This post is part of a 7 part series on Canele

The quest for Canele – Batch No 3

July 21, 2015Cookingadmin

Third Attempt

This time I went back to the first recipe. I only used egg yolks reduced the amount of flour and sugar. I notice that when I use just yolks the crust is firmer. It’s like a tough shell with a stark soft custard inside. Using egg whites and yolks together in other batches provided a more uniform transition between the outside and inside. Which I prefer.

Prep, this amount filled 7 molds 1/2″ from the top of each mold and there was left over

Here is the look of the top and bottom of this batch. The one on the right was filled higher then the others and no beeswax was used in the mold. Notice the bottom is flat.

Cut in half inside view

I made one without beeswax. This was interesting. The bottom formed more properly. It was flat, not quite rounded. I think when I use the beeswax it pools in the center and causes it to cave in a bit. Next time I will use a super thin coating of beeswax and may only apply it partially up the walls of the mold. Below is the one without beeswax. It came out wetter you can see the shine.

I took out this video because I was using too much wax and butter in the molds. I’m explaining in this video the technique I used to coat the inside of the molds with hot beeswax. I kept the other stove burner warm. As I worked the beeswax would firm up in the pan. When it did I placed pan back on the warm burner to soften it again.

Update to the video Even the coating that I demonstrate in this video is too thick. I now brush off as much wax-butter mix from the brush on the side of the pan before brushing in the mold.

http://www.finecooking.com/item/55415/the-science-of-baking-cookies

Notes: making it with no whites made the outer crust firmer. The next day they were spongy and wet. Too much wax makes the bottom concave while baking. Baked inside of glass pyrex this time.

Here is the recipe I’m using

This post is part of a 7 part series on Canele

The quest for Canele – Batch No. 2

July 18, 2015Cookingadmin

Second Attempt

My second attempt was not as successful, I liked the flavor better, but something was off and with so many variations it’s almost impossible to tell where. This is one reason why I made my plea to America’s Test Kitchen for “Help!”.

The second time I cut apart the molds. It started as one piece and this is the first cut.

Then into six

I used a glass as a template and used a permanent fine point sharpie to draw a circle around each mold. Not much sticks to the silicone. I tried wax pencil, pen, and pencil. Only permanent marker worked, and it was easy to rub off when I was done!

Here is the final product

Turns out they stack nicely

I find individual molds are much easier to bake with and clean.

This time I tried the recipe from here. I modified it for half, figuring this was easiest and I would have some left over. I also added two aluminum molds. I was curious how they would cook, and it was strikingly different. I didn’t listen to the recommendation in this recipe to let the batter rest 48 hours and instead let it rest only 18 hours. This was the same amount of time of rest from the first batch (which didn’t raise out of the molds). For this recipe it was a mistake. The canele raised out of the molds and it became a game of hot potato pulling each one out of the oven. I had to take them out several times or risk them flopping out of the mold, my biggest fear! I believe this happened because this recipe uses egg white in the batter. Last time I only used egg yolks and didn’t have this problem. I think I over filled the molds this time too. Filling the mold 1/4″ from the top. Next till I will fill them 1/2″ from the top.

This is what they looked like baking. The two aluminum molds are on the left. You can see on the right, one starting to pop out out. Interestingly enough, the aluminum mold produced the correct rounded top that I was after. The silicone molds bake the canele flat or sunken in. The pooling liquid on the top I think was mostly beeswax.

Here I have taken them out for a rest in the middle of baking (not what I wanted or planned on). You can see the ones in the back are starting to go back down. The ones in the front were taken out later and were still up over the mold

For some reason the canele popped out of the aluminum molds much more then the copper, but they never developed the caramelized outer skin.

This is interesting, This was the best one. I ran out of batter on this batch and only filled this one halfway full.

Below is my first one out of the silicon, good color but the bottom was convex and the inside was more of a solid custard then the lighter airy custard I wanted.

I attempted to bake the remainder more then was recommend to achieve the proper consistency, but they just ended up burning slightly. What I learned is that I don’t want the pastry to come out of the mold at all, when it does it exposes the surface area to the oven heat and will burn. Plus it’s not fun to take them in and out of the oven, it’s dangerous!

Here are what the top of all six looked like from the silicon molds