French mini-cake with a sugary crust: Cannelés de Bordeaux

The little cakes in this recipe are really something special. To prepare them, you just need a bit of patience but the result is worth it.

After baking, the cannelés have a delicate, crunchy sugar crust with the softest, lightest interior. Thank goodness these sweet tidbits made it across the French border to the rest of the world.

You'll need (for 12 portions):

• 2 cups milk
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1/8 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 1 egg and 2 egg yolks, beaten
• 1 shot rum
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Here's how:

1. Scrape the seeds from inside the vanilla bean and mash them to a pulp. Pour the milk, the vanilla pulp, and the bean together with the butter into a pot. Warm the ingredients until the butter has melted.
2. Blend the flour and sugar. Then add the milk mixture and stir the batter until it's even.
3. Now add the egg and two yolks, plus the rum and vanilla extract. Mix all the ingredients well.
4. Cover the batter and let it chill overnight. 
5. The next day, strain the vanilla bits and bean out. Then pour the batter into 12 cannelés forms. You can also use a muffin pan or mini bundt cake forms. 
6. Bake for one hour at 350 °F.

Don't wait too long to eat the cakes since, well, for heaven's sake, how could you? They're irresistible! But also because they'll lose that caramelized outer layer after about eight hours. And they taste truly exquisite straight out of the oven.