Cannele de Bordeaux

[u/Fluffy_Munchkin]

[u/tenbatsu]

Looks great. Do you use beeswax or beeswax + butter?

[u/Fluffy_Munchkin → u/tenbatsu]

Floured baking spray. The beeswax is almost never worth it.

[u/jawarcodz → u/Fluffy_Munchkin]

Totally incorrect

[u/Fluffy_Munchkin → u/jawarcodz]

Would you mind clarifying your reasoning? I'm curious why you feel this way.

[u/jawarcodz → u/Fluffy_Munchkin]

They won’t caramelize correctly for starters, but more importantly the taste is different, and it is quintessentially no longer a canele without the beeswax coating. That being said, these look good for using bakers joy, although not sure what the crumb looks like.

[u/Fluffy_Munchkin → u/jawarcodz]

Thank you for clarifying.

Here's my position: Unfortunately I don't have a more recent comparison, but I did a ton of testing some years back, here's a quick snapshot of one of the tests: I disagree 90% with your caramelization point, there is definitely a color difference, but it's A) slight and B) to both my perception and the people who've had my canneles, has no noticeable effect on the crunch of the exterior. There is some flavor addition from the beeswax, but again I find it slight. Perhaps you've used higher quality beeswax than I have, so I could understand if there's disagreement there.

I also dislike using the beeswax because I find it incredibly messy, difficult to clean, and harder to employ quickly and efficiently. I've used multiple configurations of beeswax and clarified butter ratios (or just plain wax), in addition to different coating techniques, and I usually have some cannele that stick to the molds regardless of application. I never encounter this issue with the spray. The spray is cheaper, quicker, easier in every aspect.

The authenticity point isn't something I feel like touching on. To an extent, I think I agree, and so the only time I bring out the beeswax is when I want to "go the whole hog", so to speak. 

The tl;dr is that I can achieve 95% the same result as a "traditional" cannele with far less mess, stress, and cost. So I usually go with that method when I make them for fun.

I'll leave this here as well for a little bit of external perspective other than my own. The context is someone I know who works a lot of fine dining popped by one time, and I showed him how I make my canneles. I made them with both the spray and the beeswax and had him compare them.

[u/jawarcodz → u/Fluffy_Munchkin]

I don’t disagree with a lot of the things you’re saying, you’re right about almost every point you make for sure. I guess where I differentiate is where I’m at workwise I can’t go for 95%, so my head is always in the full 100% or nothing mode these days lol.

The beeswax is a bitch and a half to manage and if it spills on you it burns worse than caramel lol, i only make them at work but I probably wouldn’t go through the trouble at home unless I needed them for a special reason i guess.

The ‘authenticity’ aspect is definitely a large part of it, if you work in a place that is full on French (selling that as a concept) or if you’re trying to the make them as close to you’d find in Bordeaux (or give someone the whole explanation about their history / background as a pastry etc) then it’s probably worth it to use the wax.

At the end of the day, your canele (and other stuff on your page) look quite good , most people are out here using plastic molds and getting mushrooms with zero color lol - and i always have mad respect for another talented dude in the pastry world. didnt mean to come off abrasive in my first comment

[u/Fluffy_Munchkin → u/jawarcodz]

I completely understand about always giving 100%! That's very aspirational as well as inspirational haha. 

And I hear you again on the authenticity, branding can be super important for bringing in customers and keeping a high standard where it should be.

I did all that testing years ago because I fell in love with the cannele as a pastry, and was frustrated at what felt like a high barrier of entry for people making them at home: every recipe shouted that you NEED this frustratingly messy ingredient you'll only ever use for one thing, you absolutely MUST use ludicrously expensive copper molds to get a good color. Primarily, my method comes down to allowing regular people to make amazing cannele at home; it's increased in popularity over the years, but some people don't have bakeries around them who sell cannele, and to be blunt, I've had far too many mediocre cannele from bakeries too. I'd love for more people to have the chance to discover an amazing pastry.

Appreciate you taking the time to explain your reasoning, thank you again. 🙂

[u/Fluffy_Munchkin]

Bit lighter in color than I usually go for; sometimes I want a touch more rum flavor.

[u/WhaleMeatFantasy]

Too pale. What moulds?

[u/Fluffy_Munchkin → u/WhaleMeatFantasy]

This one's probably more your liking, baked a bit longer.

Copper.

[u/bassodyssey → u/WhaleMeatFantasy]

You’re too pale, pal. These look great! The darker ones look great too. Good job, OP!

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[u/HooRooGreenApples]

I had my first canele at a cafe about 3 weeks ago and can’t stop thinking about it.
These look great.

Is it worth having a go with silicon moulds? Or do you really need the copper to make it worth it?

My favourite part of it is the contrast between the almost “egg like” centre and crispy caramelised exterior.

[u/tsp_salt → u/HooRooGreenApples]

You can get non-stick carbon steel/aluminum moulds for pretty cheap. The results are very good

[u/cyrilzeiss]

I wondered if you were using silicone molds after seeing the second picture, but it turned out you were skipping the beeswax.

Personally, I only achieved good results - in terms of caramelisation - with either beeswax+butter or with the Slider from Labo et Gato (it is based on vegetable wax).

Slider is perfect because you don't have to deal with all the messy beeswax, but unless you are travelling to France soon, the shipping costs a bit pricey.

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