I made a couple of batches of canelé this weekend, but what I really think I made was a couple of batches of bad or off canelé.

I don’t think I ever tried one when I lived in Paris, more concerned with finding the “best” croissant, but the chefsteps activity made them look really appealing.

I my cook time seems to be way off in a way I couldn’t easily diagnose, but with some fiddling I got w decent result (based off descriptions of canelé from people who know and love them). To be fair, the crisp shell and custardy interior were quite nice, but my outsides were a just a little chewy (though still crisp) and had a strange pastry-marshmallow like flavor. I think maybe less vanilla and more alcohol in the batter?

I’m not really sure I liked them. I think I just prefer madeleine, which are crisp and airy rather than crisp and well, marshmallowy, and take about the same amount of time. To be fair, whenever I try to make something that I’ve never before had, it’s never that successful.

If I’m honest, I am really disappointed that I didn’t like them. These small honest style pastries are my favorites (madeleline and to a more complex degree croissant). Something made with just a couple of ingredients that goes perfectly with a cup of coffee. If I’m being really honest, I loved the molds. Copper, tin-lined molds that have to be seasoned and last forever that are used to make a small traditional french pastry? I thought canelé would be an instant favorite and strong addition to my repertoire. That’s why it’s a bit heartbreaking that I didn’t love them, and I do realize that’s a terrible reason to want something to work.

On my last batch, I doubled the salt and the alcohol (cognac in this case over rum since in my first trial of cognac and rum the cognac wasn’t so different to I think alter the product significantly– just preferable). The first two batches had that slight dead dough taste that some with little or no salt and that helped. I’m just not sure what to do about the marshmallowness (and here I mean a really soft pillowy mouthfeel that tasty, very mild, slight sweet, and with hints of vanilla).

I do think the recipe is a good one, just that my own person taste leans in a sightly different direction. I’m just not really sure what I was expecting. I’ll try a couple more versions probably one with AP flour. Despite chefssteps’ looking down at AP flour as a catch all of jumbled protein types, I’d like to think King Arthur is a bit more reliable. On the other hand, something that is more cakey/madeleine like seems completely out of what canelé are supposed to be.

Cor