Canelés de Bordeaux

So, in my pastry adventures I’d often heard of canelés de Bourdeaux, little French pastries that are custardy on the inside, deeply caramelized on the outside, and which (sadly) require a lot of time and some specialty equipment to make. Given the apparent complexity of the process I’d decided against trying to make them myself, until I actually tried one and got hooked.

These things are really delicious– the outside has a nice, toasty flavor from the caramelization and a crisp-chewy texture, presumably from the beeswax/butter coating, while the inside is soft and squidgy, with a nice hit of rum at the end. They’re kind of like creme brulee in pastry form– I had to try making my own.

The problem, of course, is that traditional canelés are made with individual copper molds that run for $15-40 *each* online, and obviously you’d need a set of at least 8 to make the recipe worth baking. There had to be another way. Some internet research indicated that most of the silicone options weren’t sufficiently conductive to get real caramelization on the outside, so I went for a heavy-duty metal pan— nonstick, but that was only a side benefit since I would definitely be using the wax/butter coating for a more authentic result.

I found a very helpful post by Taste of Artisan, giving not only the recipe but very clear instructions on the baking process. I highly recommend that you check it out, though I had to adapt things a bit to account for my use of non-traditional molds.

Orange Spice Palmiers

So I was looking for something simple to make for a thank-you gift for some friends who did us a favor– I always promise baked goods for things like this. Since our friends had little kids I wanted to make sure that whatever I made was relatively mess-free, as well as being easy to eat and not too outrageously sugary. When I thought of palmiers I knew I’d hit on the right idea. But you know me, I never let well enough alone– I wasn’t going to go to the trouble of making my own puff pastry (it never turns out well for me) so I had to doctor them up somehow.

Traditional Breadbaking at Le Cordon Bleu Paris: Day 1

Guess where I am right now? … Well, yes, you’ve read the title of the post so clearly I’m in Paris, but let’s pretend it was a surprise. I’m taking a 4-day short course in Traditional Breadbaking at Le Cordon Bleu Paris!

I just finished Day 1, which included baguettes, kugelhopf, pain de champagne (country style bread with fermented dough), pain complet (whole wheat bread), Pain d’ epices (gingerbread), and chouquettes. The class is being taught by Oliver Boudot entirely in French, but there’s an English translator on hand translating everything, so it was really easy to follow. We were supplied with aprons, tea towels, and everything we needed to follow along and bake from 8:30am to 3:00pm!