I
Trends
f you haven’t eaten a canelé before, you’re missing out. The tiny but mighty pastry usually sits around 5cm in height and is known for its caramelised shell and soft custard centre. The canelé has roots in the Bordeaux region in France where it has remained a pâtisserie staple. However, it hasn’t had the same impact as a croissant or pain au chocolat in Australia — yet. Hospitality speaks to April Bae from The Flour and Fred’s pastry chef Elodie Marion about the canelés recent appearance on local shores, selecting the right mould, the importance of baking in stages and technical difficulties.
The canelé has been around for centuries, and Australian venues are finally starting to put the petite French pastry front and centre. By Annabelle Cloros.
RISING TO THE CHALLENGE
Canelé
Discovering a foodstuff that hasn’t already been flogged to death is a rarity, but the canelé may very well be one of them. Australians are known for being world travellers who typically return having tried a number of new delicacies, so it was only a matter of time before chefs began recreating canelés for the local market. Fred’s in Paddington, Sydney, recently launched a breakfast offering, and thought the canelé would be the perfect addition. “When we were deciding on the approach to breakfast at Fred’s, head chef Danielle Alvarez wanted to create a European feel to the offerings,” says Elodie Marion. “We thought the canelé was an under-represented pastry in Sydney and it would make a statement.” For ex-Rockpool pastry chef and The Flour owner April Bae, an overseas discovery inspired her to launch her own business that focused on canelés. “I tried a canelé, and the shape, flavour and texture was so interesting,” she says. “They’re a masterpiece of texture and flavour when made well, so I started to research them and make authentic canelés.”
TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES
The Flour’s canelé options
16 Hospitality November 2018
While the canelé’s appearance is deceptively simple, there are many factors that go into making a sublime pastry. There are just eight core ingredients — milk, butter, vanilla, rum, eggs, flour, sugar, flour — needed to make a good canelé, but there’s plenty of room for error, or “pressure points” as Marion calls them. “Like most areas of baking as opposed to cooking, it requires following a detailed recipe accurately,” she says. “For example, the temperature of my oven can’t be off by a degree or I run the risk of the texture of the canelé being incorrect. Similarly, when preparing the mixture, if I heat the milk component to an incorrect temperature, the canelé will invariably ‘mushroom’ in the moulds.” Bae agrees, and says achieving uniformity is another touchpoint when making canelés. “I don’t think they’re technically difficult, but it’s hard to get the same consistency,” she says. “They’re simple, but difficult to get right.”
