Canelés de Bordeaux (Crispy Baked French Custards) – Hold the Mold!

I've wanted to do a Canelés de Bordeaux video forever, but just never got around to buying the specially designed molds that they require. After seeing a picture of them online a few days ago, I decided this would be the week, and headed out to the one store near me I knew carried the necessary hardware.

Since it was actually a hardware store that also carries lots of kitchen equipment, I figured they would have the beeswax, as well. I've been in that store at least a hundred times, and I would anyways see the canelé molds beckoning me, but never pulled trigger, since I was usually looking for something else.

So, you can imagine my shock when I walked down that aisle, as I'd done so many times before, only to find they were no longer stocked. Thanks a lot, Amazon. Anyway, purely out of spite, I decided to make them anyway, using a regular muffin pan, and the results were pretty amazing.

As long as you cook them long enough, the muffin tin works great, assuming you don't care about getting the classic shape. Since this was an experiment, I only did six, but I've scaled the recipe below to make 12. I'm not sure how many real canelé molds this recipe will fill, but it's probably close to that. Either way, I really hope you give these a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 12 Canelé de Bordeaux:

• 2 cups whole milk
• 2 tablespoons plus one teaspoon unsalted butter
• 1 cup white granulated sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, or 1/8 teaspoon of fine salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup rum
• For greasing pan:
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons beeswax
• - Bake at 450 F. for 10 minutes, then at 375 F. for about 50 minutes more, or until well browned.
• -- NOTE: These only stay crispy for about 8 hours. So, fair warning if you plan to make them a day ahead. I've never tried to re-crisp.