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Vegan Canelé de Bordeaux

This canelé recipe was adapted from Buttermilk Pantry’s recipe. Whenever Buttermilk Pantry is testing anything on Instagram, I am always intrigued by them and keen to try to figure out how to veganize the recipes.

I immediately ordered a slightly affordable version of the molds, copper-tinned, and started researching how to replace eggs in custards. I also had a look to see what other vegan canelé recipes attempted to do. Silken tofu is a pretty common egg replacement, and seemed like the obvious choice for a custard. The silken tofu allows us to replicate the texture of custard without imparting much flavour, and most of the flavour in this canelé will be coming from the other ingredients (predominantly, soy milk, butter, vanilla & rum).

The look and texture of these is very similar to classic canelé, and tastes pretty similar (at least, based on feedback from one French person). The exterior is deeply caramalized from the sugar, and has a crisp crust. The interior is soft, custardy and kind of squishy. It is slightly airy and not too dense.

  • 11
  • N/A
  • 55-65 minutes

Ingredients

  • 500g soy milk
  • 35g vegan butter, cut into 1” cubes, plus more for coating molds
  • 240g white sugar
  • 75g plain or all-purpose flour
  • 50g high-protein bread flour
  • 80g silken tofu
  • 2tsp vanilla extract
  • 20g spiced rum
  • canelé molds

Directions

  1. Heat the milk and butter together in a pot over low heat until it reaches 80C. Be sure to stir to ensure the butter melts before the milk reaches the 80C point.
  2. Measure out 80g silken tofu into a bowl, and slowly whisk it until it is relatively smooth. It will be very crumbly at first, but should come together.
  3. Once smooth, add in the sugar and whisk well till completely combined and slightly shiny
  4. Unlike when working with eggs, there is no risk of ‘scrambling’ the silken tofu. However, we still want to slowly pour the milk/butter mixture to ensure that it is properly incorporated.
  5. Gradually pour the milk/butter mixture into the silken tofu/sugar mixture while whisking to combine. This will be the equivalent of a custard.
  6. Sift the flours into the custard mixture in batches, and incorporating it in between batches. Don’t worry about lumps as we will strain the entire mixture, and ensure that you are not overworking it.
  7. Add the vanilla extract and rum, and give it a final whisk to incorporate.
  8. Pass the batter through a fine-mesh sieve twice. This will allow us to re-incorporate the flour clumps back into the mixture, giving us the final silky smooth mixture.
  9. Cover and store in the fridge for 24-48 hours.
  10. When ready to bake, pre-heat the oven to 220C (fan-assisted) with a baking sheet (or, baking steel if you have one) on the middle rack.
  11. Prepare a cooling wire rack with some paper towels undearneah.
  12. Coat the insides of the canele molds with melted butter, and position facing down on the wire rack. Leave them for a few minutes to let any excess butter drain. We only want a light coating, and want to avoid the butter pooling at the top/bottom.
  13. Pour the mixture into each mold until its 3/4s full. My molds take around 60g to reach the 3/4 point. Your molds might be smaller or larger, which will require adjusting the baking time.
  14. Place the molds onto another smaller baking sheet, and place in the oven ontop of the pre-heated baking sheet.
  15. Bake for 18 minutes at 220C, then lower the temperature to 180C and bake for another 45-50 minutes until the canelés have a deep bronze colour.
  16. When ready, remove from the oven, tip the caneles out of their molds and let cool on a wire rack for at least an hour until it comes to room temperature.

Canelé Molds Pre-seasoning If you have purchased new copper or copper-tinned molds, ensure that you pre-season them first to avoid any issues getting them out of the molds. I pre-seasoned my molds by coating them well with canola oil, placing them facing down in the oven at 180C for 20 minutes, and letting them sit in the oven till they are up to room temperature. I repeated the pre-seasoning process twice for good measure. :)