Author Notes: Best. Dessert. Ever.
I first had canneles in the town of St. Emilion, in Bordeaux (where there is literally a cannele shop on every street, and the scent of vanilla-rum wafts through the air), and quickly fell in love with them. I was living in France at the time and was working for a woman who taught cooking classes and had her teach me how to make them. I’ve tweaked that recipe quite a bit and turned it into what it the best cannele recipe of all time. In all my years of cannele eating, I have yet to find a cannele better than this one.
Cannele molds are available at specialty kitchen stores like Sur La Table. The metal molds will yield a slightly crispier product, but the silicone ones are easier to clean and don’t require greasing. —lauren
Makes: about 15
Ingredients
-
2
cups whole milk
-
1 1/2
teaspoons vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
-
2/3
cup sugar
-
2
egg yolks
-
1/2
tablespoon butter, melted
-
1
cup flour
-
1/4
cup good quality dark rum (I generally use Meyers)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a saucepan, heat 1 1/2 cups milk with the vanilla extract and butter. Bring just to a boil over the stove or in the microwave.
- In a mixing bowl, combine the egg yolks with remaining 1/2 cup of milk and blend well. Whisk in the first milk mixture along with the melted butter. Set aside to cool.
- Add the sugar, flour, and rum to the milk mixture. Whisk vigorously so that there are no clumps remaining. Let sit overnight in the refrigerator.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Remove the batter from the refrigerator and whisk again. Pour mixture into cannele molds about 3/4 of the way to the top.
- Bake for an hour and fifteen minutes (sometimes it takes as long as an hour and a half depending on your oven). Remove from the oven when the tops are dark brown (if it’s been an hour and a half and the tops still aren’t brown, cook longer). Let cool, then remove from molds.
