French canelés

This typical French pastry is golden-brown and crispy on the outside with a rich baked custard filling that’s moist and indescribably delicious! We used a six-hole silicone crown mould with great success instead of the classic canelé pan. My method is based on food writer Rachael Khoo’s winning recipe.

Makes 12 canelés • Preparation: 20 minutes, plus 2 days resting time • Baking time: 1 hour and 15 minutes

Oven temperature: 240°C without a fan

• 1 vanilla pod or 5ml vanilla extract

• 500ml full-cream milk • 50g butter

• 170ml cake flour

• 450ml icing sugar, sifted • a large pinch of salt

• 2 eggs

• 2 egg yolks

• 60ml dark rum

1 Cut open the vanilla pod lengthwise, scrape out the seeds and place the pod and seeds (or vanilla extract) together with the milk and butter in a pot on the stove. Bring to the boil, then remove from the heat and stir until the butter has melted. Allow to cool slightly.

2 Sift the flour, icing sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl.

3 Beat the eggs and egg yolks together until just combined (don’t overdo it; you don’t want to trap too much air). Add the eggs and the hot milk mixture to the dry ingredients and stir to form a smooth batter. Pour the batter through a sieve to remove any lumps, stir in the rum and put the vanilla pod back in the batter. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for 2 days. During the resting time, the gluten will relax and the vanilla flavour will intensify.

4 Preheat the oven. Place the empty silicone mould on a baking tray and warm up for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, remove the batter from the fridge and stir until it comes together.

Pour the batter into the cavities of the hot mould – fill each cavity to 1cm below the rim.

Bake for 15 minutes at 240°C; then reduce the oven temperature to 190°C and bake for another hour until the canelés are a deep, rich bronze on the outside. Turn out onto a rack to cool. >>