Please help with cannele recipe

I first learned of canneles from a recipe in Gale Gand's book "Just a Bite". I tried baking some in muffin pans and they tasted wonderful, but were not pretty. Later I had the real thing in Paris patiseries and fell in love with them - enough to make the investment in special copper molds to bake them properly. My problem is no matter what I try they still come out ugly and misshapen. If I fill the molds 3/4 full they rise too much and then shrink off the bottom of the mold so they don't brown all over. If I fill them less they don't rise enough and come out short and squat. I've tried several other recipes I've found on the web with slightly different ingredient ratios and baking tempurature, but without success. Has anybody else made these and can help me out with some tips? Here is the basic recipe I'm using:

3-1/4 C milk
4 Tbs butter melted
3 eggs
2 Tbs rum
2 C sugar
1-1/2 C flour
1 tsp vanilla

Mix everything together and refrigerate, covered overnight. Butter molds generously and fill 3/4 full. Bake on cookie sheet at 400 degrees for 1 hour untill dark brown.

I've also tried baking at 350 and 375 as well as starting at 400 for first 20 minutes and then reducing to 350 till done.

I realize this is a very odd looking recipe, but they are really good and quite addictive.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated - thanks!

Canelles are amazing. I've always wanted to make them. Where did you get the molds?

Nancy Silverton has a recipe that looks like it will work in her Pastries from La Brea Bakery book. She says that "because of their dark color, it's almost impossible to tell when canelles are cooked all the way through. Until you get your timing down, you may have to sacrifice one to check for doneness." She seasons and coats the molds with vegetable oil; also uses proportionally more eggs than in your recipe. She gives very exact instructions for preparing the batter, including boiling part of the milk and butter together, straining the batter, and then refrigerating it for at least 24 hours. She fills the molds to the top and bakes at 400 degrees for about 2 hours until they are very dark on the outside.

Ahh, Nancy Silverton. I've been meaning to get that book. Thanks for the tip

I bought the molds in Paris. They were hard to find even there - most shops carried the silicone elastomolds, but I wanted the old fashioned copper. Here are some on-line sources for the copper molds:

www.meilleurd...cuivre1_55.html

www.clicshop....p9597015.2.html

Night--the brass molds aren't hard to find here at all--JB Prince has stocked three charming petite sizes on display in their Manhattan showroom and mailorder for quite a while.

You might also want to check out Pierre Herme's treatment of canneles in his really beautiful pre-Dorie pastry book, called "Secrets Gourmands." It's on p. 126. I'm not familiar with the Silverton recipe but Herme's is by weight, which is always helpful when it comes to pastry and baking.

The copper cannele forms are available in US through PastryItems.

Steve - I wish I could look up the cannele recipe in Pierre Herme's book. I don't own it yet, but I would love to - along with "Patisserie of Perre Herme" and "Au Coeur des Saveurs" by Frederic Bau. All very expensive so I have to save up my shekels.

I completely agree that recipes by weight are far easier to deal with. All of the others I found on the web were in grams and liters, but I still had the same problems. For my next test batch (while I'm waiting to get my hands on Nancy's or Pierre's books) I was going to try baking at 425 for 15 minutes to set the structure and then lower the temperature to cook through and brown.

By the way, is there anyplace you recommend to buy professional pastry books? Amazon lists most of them, but with shipping times of 6-8 weeks, and JB Prince doesn't carry "Secrets Gourmands" (is that the same as "Larousse des Desserts" or is one in French only?).

Why we're (sort of) on the subject, what are your favorite pastry books? Or should we start a new thread for that subject ?

Thanks!

The traditional way of seasoning canelle molds is with melted beeswax-it is part of the flavor,and is available at good arts and craft stores.