Canelés

A soft, custardy centre that’s tender and moist, but not so dense it congeals together to look like a kueh without any crumb or bubbles. Top that off with a delicate caramelised crust that boasts a decisive crunch, and you’ve got a winner on your hands. I’ve had @nassimhillbakery’s canelés a couple of times now, and I’d confidently say they’ve never disappointed. I won’t promise the best canelés ever (tbh I’ve forgotten how exactly the ones in France I’ve had before were), but I’d say this ticks all the boxes in terms of technical execution and flavour.

I’ve always wanted to try Cassia JKT’s canelés, so knowing that Fahrenheit Coffee carries them now meant I was gonna spend a fortune there 🥲 We tried their Kaya, Coffee Butter, and Coffee canelés, and we found none particularly worth mentioning. I’m a big fan of kaya so I really wanted to like that one, but while the flavour was very promising the texture was completely like kueh. I’d even compare it to ambon lol I swear the texture is that similar. This dense, kueh-like underdone texture’s a lot more evident in the Cookie Butter canelé, with the centre completely congealed into a solid custard. I also couldn’t really taste much coffee or cookie butter in the other 2 flavours, and together with the slightly subpar texture we found these completely lacklustre. I noticed Fahrenheit also microwaves these to serve, and that caused the crusts to become a lot soggier; perhaps heating it up in a toaster would be better.

I have an immense weakness for canelés. Dark, thick, caramelised crusts, hiding pale, soft and tender centres, these dainty cylindrical pastries are, to me, the perfect lil afternoon nibble. So knowing that Le Matin’s ones are available at Maxi Coffeehar, I wasn’t about to give up scoring myself one. The custardy centre this canelé definitely nailed: just the right level of sweetness, and beautifully perfumed with vanilla with visible specks from vanilla beans 🥰 Unfortunately I did find the shell a little of a letdown. It was a tad too tough and limp, lacking that stiff crunch I was expecting, and tasted a wee too burnt — not in the nice caramel-y sorta way, but overly bitter for my taste. Still that could be a result of heating it up for dine-ins; I’m pretty sure a freshly baked one would taste tons better.

Equate’s handmade canelés are actually pretty decent: flavour’s on point, a good vanilla and custardy fragrance with a lovely caramelisation. It did however lack the signature crusty exterior (theirs were a tad soft even before the dunking), and I found the texture of the canelé a little dense and kueh-like. Their canelés were also a lil shorter than usual, so my guess is perhaps these bébés didn’t rise too well. Slight improvements on the texture, and these would be some stellar canelés.