Old Pastry Chefs Never Die, They Just Make Less Dough

Cannele, si vous plait?

Today's topic is Cannele, pronounced "kan-ah-lay", a pastry I have never made before until this weekend. I had never heard of them until I read this eGullet thread, right here. It ended up being quite a long and involved thread and reading all the various opinions and methods and recipes intimidated me the more I read through it. When I read that the traditional way of preparing the molds was coating the insides with a mixture of beeswax and butter, I decided "to hell with it" since I really didn't want to mess with beeswax. I also didn't want to spend my life savings on the special copper molds which are out-of-this-world expensive. If I couldn't do it the right way I didn't want to do it at all. So many people had said you have to have the molds and you had to have the wax. Well, thanks but no thanks.

Well, fast forward to last week when the Jefferson County/Port Townsend Leader newspaper ran a story about the OTHER bakery in town. In the story, there was a claim that the OTHER bakery was the only bakery in Washington State that made the cannele. When I read that, I thought to myself, "Uh oh". I had a strange feeling that I would probably make canneles very very soon. As I predicted, my boss came up to me and said, "What do you mean that the OTHER bakery is the only one who makes canneles? Can you make them?" Sigh. Guess I will be. Personally, I think that you probably CAN find canneles in Washington somewhere else, especially in Seattle....I mean, I can't believe a Seattle pastry chef doesn't make them somewhere in the city! Anyway the OTHER bakery won't be the only one making them here for very long, since Annie the baking machine will be cranking them out soon as well.

I worked on the canneles this weekend. I thought it would be very difficult to make them, judging from what I had read about them. A lot of internet research left me rather confused and so I figured the only way to be un-confused would be to find out about these things myself, first hand.

Here is a picture of a typical cannele:

Canneles

They originated in the Bordeaux region of France and are a popular pastry there. Super crisp on the outside, and a sort of doughy, creamy inside, they are also known as a "portable creme brulee".

The first thing I had to do was send my husband to the OTHER bakery on a spy mission. I told him on the phone, "Honey, please go to the OTHER bakery and buy a cannele if they have them....they may be sold out." I spelled it to him and he spelled it back just so he knew exactly what to get. When I got home there was a loaf of bread on the counter.
"What's this?" I asked.
He said, "It was the only thing they had in there that started with a "c"."
Of course......Challah. Right. Challah.....Cannele.....what's the difference right?
I figured I'd probably have to go into the OTHER bakery myself.

The next day, hubby redeemed himself and called me and told me he had stopped by the other bakery and got me a "callopie".
"A callopie?"
"Yeah, you know that thing you wanted."
I wondered what he'd bought this time.
Luckily he got the right thing....he just couldn't remember the name.
I was surprised at how small it was.....I had expected it to be much larger. Only about 2 inches high by about and inch and a half wide. I ate it in three bites. The first bite of my first cannele, I was unimpressed. The second bite was better. The third bite, I wanted to have another one. That's the appeal of a small pastry! Just enough to tease. It didn't have as much flavor as I expected it would, and I didn't really classify the inside as creamy....more like doughy bready. I thought to myself.....this is IT? This is what the fuss is about? I figured at the very least, I could do better. Or at least try.

I found several recipes on the internet and in my pastry books and I carefully chose two based on reviews and opinions. I made both batters and let them sit in the fridge as you are supposed to, for at LEAST 24 hours. I didn't want to use beeswax to coat my pans (I used muffin pans because I don't own any cannele molds), but I thought I would try just to see if the beeswax was REALLY necessary. Luckily, my husband, a former beekeeper had a scad of beeswax in the outer storage area, so I didn't have to go out and buy any. I baked off six of each and three of each had the beeswax butter lining in the pans. The other 6, I just oiled the cups. By the time they were done baking, the beeswax canneles popped right out. The oiled ones, well, they didn't want to come out at all. I had to run a knife along the edges and managed to pry them out. What a bitch! I was sad, because I thought at that point that the wax was necessary. Damn! Then I had a better idea. I have a "rose" pan where all the cups are shaped like miniature rosebuds. They were taller and skinnier than the muffin cups......much more like a cannele mold.....I thought I'd try baking a second batch in that. I used the wax/butter to paint the inside of the cups. They came out great! The next day, I made a third batch, and didn't use wax, but instead used "baker's grease" which is a mixture of equal parts oil, shortening, and flour. I noticed two things. One, the older the batter the better, and two, the baker's grease worked great...the canneles came right out! Yay! No wax necessary! Does the wax make a difference in the finished product's flavor and texture? Nope! Some people think it does, but according to my test, it's a bunch of hooey. I really really didn't want to mess with wax because it's such a hassle to clean up!!

Anyway, this is how they came out:

Cannele1

Rosecannele

The rose shape actually turned out pretty cool. I'm also happy to say that the flavor and texture on the inside was quite nice too......better than.....well, you know. The OTHER place.

I have the cannele molds on order (silicone ones-still can't afford the copper ones!), so canneles just may appear at a second spot on the beautiful Olympic Peninsula soon......

Signs of Stupidity

I have a big problem with other humans who fail to grasp the obvious. I used to be fairly nice about it, but now that I've aged, my patience has stretched thinner and thinner. Some people may even call me a bitch. But hey, at least I'm not stupid.

I work in a "country bakery". In the building where I make all my magical pastries, there is no retail space. It's just a bakery. The retail space is located about 45 minutes away in a neighboring city named Poulsbo. Every day I make things that get shipped to the retail space every morning at 5 am. Here's the front door of the Cafe, complete with our bread baker, Tyson, and his happy mug to greet you.......

Frontdoor

And here is the pastry case with all my goodies inside.....I couldn't get a decent picture without that nasty reflection from the windows!

Pastrycase

Actually, I'm very happy that the bakery space is 45 minutes away from the retail space. I get less interruptions that way, and I can actually get some work done......that is when I'm not telling people that the bakery isn't open to the public except on Saturdays.

On Saturdays, the bakery is opened up and we make a bunch of stuff to sell people right from the kitchen. My worktable becomes a display table, and from there we sell a selection of items from my side, (the frou-frou side), and the danish, croissant and bread side. Saturdays are one of my days off, so I'm not there to greet the hordes of sweet-toothed customers. We hired a person for that. Customer service.....not my deal.

Now you'd think that the people in Port Hadlock were starving for bread by the way they come up to my door on a daily basis thinking that we're a retail space and that we're open to the public. They act like they can't get artisan bread anywhere, but it's not true......there's a perfectly good grocery store about a mile away that sells perfectly good loaves of artisan bread. There's something about the lure of a bakery that draws people in. And my building has that magical word on it....."BAKERY", which you can easily see from the road.

Now, when I'm trying to get my work done, and I have a lot to do every day, I don't really relish being Miss Wal-Mart Greeter and telling everybody who walks up that no, we're not a retail space, there's nothing for sale here now.....please come back on Saturday, or please visit our Cafe in nearby Poulsbo. There's a LOT of people who walk up to my door regularly and the spiel was becoming tiresome. So I thought some well placed signs would help.

First I composed some signs for the windows that said, "Open every Saturday from 8 am to 2:30" and also some informational signs about our Cafe in Poulsbo that is open daily except Mondays. I made the print large. I stuck it in
the window right where people walk up so they couldn't miss them. Or could they? Yes, they could. They'd walk right by
the sign and come to the door and say, "Are you open?" And I'd have to launch into the spiel. I marveled at how people could A) miss the signs, and B) look in the window and not figure out that there was nothing for sale in there. I mean, you look inside and you just see two people working. No cash register, no tables, no chairs, no coffee or espresso, nothing on display. Just a big worktable, ovens, a big sheeter and a KitchenAid mixer. Does it LOOK like a retail space? Not even remotely.

Sigh. So I thought I'd make MORE signs and place them right where they couldn't miss them.......on the front door, where they'd always walk up. At eye level. One ON the door and one on the SIDE of the door.

Bakerydoor

Does it help? A little. Not much though. People look RIGHT PAST the signs and ask, "Are you open?" "Can I buy bread here?" "Is this the front door?" (love that one). "Is this a bakery?" (love that one too).

This is my favorite though. Some people will come up to the door, read ALL the signs, THEN ask, "Are you only open on Saturdays?" AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH! Now what the HECK is that all about? It is when that happens that I find it very hard to mask my irritation, but I do. "That's right Ma'am" I say, "only on Saturdays! Please come back then!"

My boss thought it would help if he put a sign right near the roadway.

Roadsign

We're right next to a thrift shop, so the readerboard above applies to the thrift store. The sign is pretty plain. "BAKE SALE SATURDAYS 8:00-2:30". Right next to the road. But even that doesn't prevent people from pulling in every other day of the week and walking up to my door and asking, "Are you open?"

Sigh.

I'm not one to give up easily. I'm convinced that if we cover up the sign that says "BAKERY" on the side of the building, people will stop pulling in. Maybe. I don't know. It's probably the smell that draws them anyway. I can't win.

But perhaps if I could change that thrift shop readerboard..........

Roadsignbitchy

Fun with Chocolate Cake.

I don't know if you've heard that we in the food industry have a sick sense of humor. It's how we cope. 

Bugging our co-workers with silly pranks is our raison d'etre.

Lately, my co-workers have been leaving my workspace kinda messy. I've left them notes, saying, "Hey, WTF?!?", in so many words. Alas, my notes have gone unheeded. This calls for "payback". 

Yesterday, one of the chocolate cakes Jewlz baked off overflowed a bit.....into the "perfect" shape for a prank like this:

Chocolatecake

Ha ha! I know.....looks a little too real. But they had it coming.

Can't wait to see if anyone had the stomach to "clean it up"!!!!

Bwa-ha-ha-ha!!!!

My dishwasher.

Here, folks, is a portrait of my dishwasher.

Not many people can say their dishwashers are outstanding in their field, but

mine certainly is.

Dishwasher

This thing mocks me as I drive into work every day. It just sits there in the summer sunshine (ok, it sits in the rain too), and says, "Ha ha! Have fun doing your dishes by hand, sucker!" 

And I say, "Thanks Automatic Lazy Ass Dishwasher! Hey, since you're sitting out there, maybe you could tidy up the field a little...looks a little overgrown!"

And then it says, "F**k off!"

And I say, "F**k you too!"

And my day begins. 

To see how much I appreciate dishwashers, you can read my ode, here.