Cannelés with Armagnac Syrup
Appearing fancy, civilised and high-class has never been this easy!
19 Sept 2023
Difficulty:
Easy
Servings:
16 cannelés
Prep time:
15 minutes
Waiting time:
Baking time:
2 - 5 days
45 minutes
Total time:
2 - 5 days, 45 minutes
Perfectly crunchy (and neaaarly burnt) on the outside, custardy on the inside and overall beautifully sweet from the brandy syrup: Cannelés à l'Armagnac!
These traditional little pastries from Bordeaux are are one of the easiest things I've ever made despite their exclusive, prestigious, high-maintenance sort-of reputation. Seriously, I don't understand the big deal. Let this be a comforting lesson in not letting yourself be intimidated by pastry elitists telling you to invest in costly, niche equipment or by bakeries that overcharge for their products ;)
Traditionally, cannelés are made with expensive copper moulds that you need to season and grease with beeswax and blah blah; most sources will tell you that is the only way to go, but I used a €15 silicone mould and got a pretty much perfect result using the recipe below, so don't worry. You could probably even get away with using a muffin tin, let's be honest!
Initially I was just going to make plain cannelés, but then I found a website selling them soaked in a syrup of Armagnac, which sounded too good not to try. Trust me, it is.
Ingredients
Cannelés
500 ml milk
1 Tbsp vanilla paste
250 g granulated sugar
2 full eggs
2 egg yolks
50 g butter (melted); plus extra for greasing
100 g flour
60 ml dark rum
Armagnac syrup*
100 g sugar
100 ml water
30 ml Armagnac
* If you are going to soak your cannelés in the syrup inside of a jar, make at least 4 times the amount listed here.
Instructions
Making the cannelé batter
Bring milk to a simmer, turn off heat, add vanilla and set aside.
In a bowl (preferably with a spout for easy pouring later), whisk sugar, eggs and egg yolks until smoothly combined. Mix in the butter. Add roughly ¼ of the hot milk into the eggs while whisking. Mix in the flour and, once incorporated, slowly whisk in the rest of the milk and the rum.
Cover with plastic wrap (touching the batter) and leave in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours, but preferably as long as possible, up to 5 days.
Baking the cannelés
Preheat the oven to 230°C (or as hot as your moulds can take) well in advance. If you have a pizza stone, I'd recommend using it. Bring the batter to room temperature, gently whisking for 2 minutes to homogenise (make sure not to introduce any air to the batter).
Grease the moulds with butter and pour in the batter, stopping about 0.5 cm from the edge. Bake for 15 minutes, after which, lower the temperature to 200°C and bake for another 20-30 minutes or until you see fairly dark edges (not black, but it should almost feel like you've overbaked them).
Remove from the oven, take the still hot canelés out of the mould and let cool down on a rack.
Armagnac syrup
Bring water with sugar to a boil at high heat until all the sugar has dissolved. Let cool completely and stir in the Armagnac. Now, either put your canelés in a jar, top it up with syrup and store in the fridge for however long you like (in that case, you'll probably need to make at least four times this recipe) or just pour some of the syrup over your canelés and eat straight away.
Notes
I used the 5.5 x 5 cm cannelé mould from Silikomart (SF050) and found it works perfectly.