Canelé de Bordeaux

Ingredients

• 500ml whole milk
• 50g unsalted butter
• 1 vanilla pod
• 100g plain flour
• 200g caster sugar
• 2 whole eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 50ml dark rum
• 1/4 tsp fine salt
• 20g beeswax or 30g clarified butter, for the moulds

Before you cook

• Split the vanilla pod lengthways and scrape the seeds out with the back of a knife, keeping both seeds and pod.
• Sift the flour, sugar and salt together into a large bowl.
• Whisk the whole eggs and yolks together in a jug until evenly combined.

Steps

1. Put the milk, butter, vanilla seeds and the empty pod into a saucepan and warm it over a medium heat until it steams and the butter has melted.
2. Take the pan off the heat and let it sit for ten minutes so the vanilla infuses.
3. Pour about a third of the warm milk into the flour and sugar and whisk it to a smooth thick paste with no lumps.
4. Whisk in the rest of the milk in a steady stream until the batter is thin and even.
5. Let the batter cool to just warm, then whisk in the beaten eggs quickly so they do not scramble.
6. Stir in the rum, then pour the batter through a fine sieve into a jug to catch any strands of egg.
7. Cover the jug and refrigerate the batter for a full twenty-four hours, and up to forty-eight for a deeper flavour.
8. Melt the beeswax or clarified butter and brush a thin coat inside sixteen canelé moulds, then turn them upside down on a rack to drain.
9. Chill the coated moulds in the freezer for twenty minutes so the coating sets hard.
10. Heat the oven to 240C fan-off with a baking tray on the middle shelf.
11. Stir the cold batter gently to recombine it without whipping in air, then fill each mould to about 5mm below the rim.
12. Set the filled moulds on the hot tray and bake them for ten minutes at full heat.
13. Drop the oven to 180C and bake for a further fifty-five to sixty-five minutes, until the tops are the colour of dark mahogany.
14. Turn one canelé out to check the colour, and give them another ten minutes if the sides are still pale.
15. Turn them all out onto a wire rack straight away and leave them to cool for at least an hour, so the shell crisps and the centre stays custardy.