Cannelés de Bordeaux

Tags

Bordeaux, cakes, cannelés

A cannelé is a small French pastry flavored with rum and vanilla with a soft and tender custard center and a dark, thick caramelized crust. Does that not sound like the perfect little snack?  It takes the shape of small, striated cylinder up to five centimeters in height with a depression at the top. Traditionally they are baked in copper moulds greased with beeswax.

These extraordinary little confections are a specialty of Bordeaux, where nuns were said to have created them more than 200 years ago, using egg yolks that were donated by local winemakers who needed the egg whites to clarify their wines.

They contrast a crunchy caramelized exterior with a moist, custardy center.If you haven’t had them, cannelés are addictively good. Yes, the grandiose French treats with their flaky crusts, crèmes, and berries are spectacular and sophisticated. But cannelés are austere and lovely. They are off-sweet and perfect with a cup of coffee, tea, or even a glass of wine.

Makes 12 to 16 cannelés

Ingredients:

2 eggs + 2 yolks
30g / 2 tablespoons butter
500ml / 2 cups whole milk
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup pastry flour
3 tablespoons rum
1 vanilla bean or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation:

 

The day before: boil the milk with the vanilla and butter
Take off the heat, allow to cool VERY slightly
Mix the flour and sugar together
Add the eggs and egg yolks, pour this mixture in the hot milk
Gently mix in order to obtain a fluid and smooth mixture, like a pancake batter, let it cool,  Add the rum
Place it in the refrigerator for 24 hours
When you are ready to bake the cannelés: preheat the oven to 250C/495°F
Butter the moulds liberally and then sprinkle some sugar in the moulds
Pour the batter in to the buttered and sugared cannelés moulds –  they should be 3/4 full – NO more
Place the moulds on a baking sheet, and cook on high for 5 minutes, then lower the temperature to 175C/350F and continue cooking for 1 hour at least. (It depends on your oven, it can take up to 1 and a quarter hours!)
The tops will have a brown crust when they are ready, and they should still be moist inside
Carefully unmould them whilst they are still hot
Allow them to cool
Enjoy!

Serve with tea or coffee or with a glass of wine or cognac in the late afternoon or evening

 

 

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Brasserie Le Bordeaux Gordon Ramsay

Tags

beef wellington, Bordeaux, gordon ramsay, le bordeaux, le grand hotel, restaurant review

InterContinental Bordeaux – Le Grand Hotel

A few days ago, we went to Bordeaux, a two hours drive from our home. I had wanted to eat at Gordon Ramsay’s brasserie since it opened a few months ago and I knew exactly what I wanted to eat –  the beef wellington with marrow bones. This is a dish served for two and comes with a side of sweet, succulent roasted garlic, creamy mashed potatoes and the best curly kale, I have ever eaten. To be entirely honest, I have not eaten much kale before except raw in salads so do not have much to go on, but I can say, that this was buttery and delicious.

We booked the day before going and the only opening was at 7pm, which suited us just fine. We tend to be very early eaters, by French standards, as the most popular time for restaurant bookings traditionally is 8:30pm. What I love about restaurants here is that they, on the whole, do not try and turn tables, so even if you have a 7pm booking (the earliest, as most restaurants do not open their doors before 7 or 7:30pm) you are actually encouraged to stay as long as you wish. No rushing you out the door or hovering over your table or pressing you to settle up – in fact, we had to flag the waiter down at about 9:15pm to get our bill. Two hours 15 minutes and we only ate one course.  Now, do not get me wrong, the service was not slow, in fact, it was perfect. Attentive, without being overbearing. On arrival, at 7:05pm, we were the second table and the restaurant, which was fully booked, only filled up around 8:30pm, we had a glass of champagne for apéritif and were offered the complimentary toasts with foie gras as an amuse-bouche while we looked at the menu. But, as I mentioned above, I had decided months ago that when I eventually got to Gordon Ramsays’ I was going to eat the Beef Wellington. It is not so much that I love fillet but I adore marrow bones, so even if it was tongue with marrow bones, I would have ordered it. Well, maybe not…

Inside view

The outdoor terrace

The brasserie is situated in the gorgeous InterContinental Bordeaux – Le Grand Hotel.
The menu of Le Bordeaux Gordon Ramsay proposes specialties of South-Western France with a British touch.

Here is a link to the menu Click here

Foie gras toasts for amuse-bouches

Beef Wellington with roasted marrow bones

Curly kale

Beef Wellington for 2 with roasted garlic and marrow bones

The waiter advised us that this took about 25 minutes to cook and how would we like the meat cooked. Saignant, or rare, and no problem, as we were not in any hurry. Slowly the restaurant started filling up and we finished our apéritif and switched to a glass of red wine, Château Lamarque 2010 – Haut-Médoc, 12 €, an excellent choice to accompany the beef. The dish arrived, presented beautifully on a wooden board. It was about as perfect as a dish could be, the pastry was crispy and flaky, the beef cooked exactly the way we ordered, the marrow bones, generous in size and absolutely delicious. A small jar of jus was served on the side. We had ordered a side portion of french fries, just because we love them, and these are thrice cooked in goose fat – decadent, crispy, fluffy inside. A second glass of red each was ordered and we chatted and ate while people watching the other diners, a group of 6 Brits, a French grandfather with his daughter and granddaughter, several couples, a group of about 14 having a company Christmas dinner. We decided to pass on dessert, although it was very tempting and were happy to finish our wine quietly. Eventually around 9:15pm we signaled to our waiter for the bill and he said that he had not brought it over earlier as he did not want to rush us out and wanted us to enjoy our evening leisurely. Very French and so perfect.
So, if you are passing through Bordeaux, I highly encourage you to book a table at Le Bordeaux Gordon Ramsay.

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