French mini cake

I’m starting a cooking series of mini-patisserie so you can treat yourself without feeling guilty. Those little cakes will be perfect for your tea-time.

As you might know I’m French hence the first ‘mignardise’, as we say in French, of this series has to be French although they don’t come from my region. They come from Bordeaux a nice city on the banks of the Garonne River in the South West of France. They are called Cannelés; they received their name from another French cake made during the 17th century by nuns which was called canelas or canelons. Throughout the past centuries canelon or canelas’ recipe has changed leading to the creation of Cannelés.

If you have already seen or made Cannelés, you have noticed Cannelés’ particular color and texture. Both color and texture are due to the singular way of baking those little cakes. Cannelés cook at first for a short period of time in a really hot oven before cooking for a long period of time in a cooler oven.

To make Cannelés you will need

- 50 cl (2 and ¼ cup) of milk

- 200g (1 cup) of caster sugar

- 1 tea spoon of vanilla extract

- 55g (1/4 cup) of butter

- 125g (1cup) of plain flour

- 3 egg yolks

- 5cl (3 tbsp and 1 tsp) of Rum

Start by bringing milk, sugar, butter and vanilla extract to a boil in a saucepan. Once it’s boiling, remove from the stove and allow it to cool before using it.

Put flour and egg yolks in a mixing bowl. Start to stir the mixture adding little by little the milk mixture now at room temperature. Once everything is well combined add the rum.

The batter has to rest at least 20 hours, up to 30 hours in the fridge.

After the resting time, take your batter out of the fridge in order for it to warm up before baking.

In the mean time, preheat your oven at 300°C or 520°F, if you’re oven can’t reach this temperature, preheat it at the highest temperature it can reach.

As soon as you’re oven is hot and the batter at room temperature, pour the batter into the Cannelés molds, they have to be ¾ full.

Place the molds in the oven for 6 minutes if you’re oven is at 300°c ( 520°F) or for 15 minutes if you’re oven isn’t at 300°C. Then lower the oven temperature at 180°C or 350°F and bake the Cannelés for an additional 40 minutes.

Allow your Cannelés to cool a little before eating them. I advise you to eat them when they’re still warm; that’s when they are the most flavorful.

You can store them in a box up to four days.