Canelés - more

Making canelés - Cadillac market, near Bordeaux.  (Note silicon moulds.)

Bumped into a friend last night who told me her daughter had been "playing around" with using bees wax in her canelés moulds. Never again! She had blocked her drains!  Use butter. 

BUT, this story is  too good not to share.
​Adam Wynn sent this minutes after the post Sweet Mysteries of Life "went to air".

"Ah… Canelés plucked at my heart-strings.
I was introduced to them in Bordeaux 40 years ago. Once available only in Bordeaux, they’re now everywhere. They are super popular in Japan at the moment and even suburban and country bakers and cake shops carry them.
 
As for origins, I actually know the true history, away from the myths. The main ingredients are intricately tied to Bordeaux's history.

People think that the great wealth of Bordeaux and its merchants came from wine. True, Bordeaux has done rather well out of wine over the years, but the real solid, massive wealth of the Bordelais came from slavery. Its dirty little secret, brushed over now, trying to be forgotten, is that Bordeaux was the port négrier of France, its Liverpool.

The massive amount of valuable goods from France's slave colonies came in through Bordeaux. The huge wealth this generated allowed for the building of grand wine estates and the complete renovation of many a mouldy castle.
 
The main ingredients of canelés were goods from slave-labour, from overseas territories-  and one from the wine industry.

• Rum from Martinique
• Vanilla from Madagascar 
• Sugar from Haiti, Martinique etc.
• Eggs yolks from wine making.

 
The traditional way of fining or clarifying a red wine was to use eggs whites, about six per barrel. For a Château with perhaps 200 barrels, there would be 1,200 eggs yolks left over. This is still a problem and I can attest to the fact that the workers get fed a lot of quiche and omelettes, rather rich ones at that.
 
As to which nun or baker came up with the recipe we’ll  never know. The murky history of the place is buried in that very recipe. 
 
Perhaps now canelés are getting a little over exposed. I agree that copper moulds are best. I got a large bank loan and bought some. I have stainless steel ones as well but they are not as good."

Adam Wynn
Wine maker & Honorary Japanese Consul-General, Adelaide

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