A few weeks ago I was sitting on my sofa eating some Ben and Jerry's Chubby Hubby ice cream and watching ABC's Extreme Weight Loss when I thought, must try and make some canneles and see what is the fuss all about.
The answer so far: a lot of fuss indeed. I decided to make a half-commitment and ordered six of the copper molds and one of the better silicone molds, plus some beeswax.
There are so many other posts out there, no point in saying much, except that getting the right amount of beeswax and butter mixture into the molds takes a pretty simple project and makes it something really not simple at all. Not simple and quite messy and cleaning beeswax and butter off a pastry brush alone is a reason to hesitate.
The actual pastries however are delicious. I used a formula credited to Dorie Greenspan. The only downside was a bit of excessive waxiness on some of them. I realized after eating two in succession that I could feel the wax on my tongue. Decidedly not so delicious. Since I am already invested in the molds I will certainly give these another try sooner than later, but also will either use much less than the equal proportions of butter and wax in coating the molds -- perhaps one part wax to four parts butter by weight -- or just make them without the wax and see how they turn out.
