The Wife is not a fan of sweet desserts and prefers her pastries on the savoury side. There is one exception however: the crunchy-on-the-outside, chewy-on-the-inside canelé.
I’m more of a cake person myself, and don’t particularly fancy the weird-looking (to me at least) French pastry. But given my increasing difficulty in processing large amounts of sugar in short periods of time, I’m coming around to alternatives that don’t immediately trigger heart palpitations.
The issue with canelés though, is that they’re quite difficult to find in Singapore. We’re not even talking about really good ones. Just finding any available in bakeries or patisseries here has been a challenge.
We used to buy the petite versions from the Johan Paris bakery within Isetan Orchard, but they seem to have disappeared. There used to be trays and trays of the stuff, but the last two times we were there, not a single mini canelé was to be found.
Thus began The Wife’s island-wide search for her beloved, but somewhat elusive, baked good.
Her first successful find was at Patisserie G, which happened to have an outlet at Thomson Plaza, a short bus ride away from where we stay. When we reached there in the early evening, they had quite a few on display.
We were having dinner with The Old Folks that night, and our initial thoughts were to buy the canelés only after our meal. But The Wife was feeling a little paranoid and decided to get them immediately, before they get wiped out by other canelé aficionados.
Since we were only having them the next day, the enthusiastic counter staff gave us instructions on the best way to store and re-heat. Specifically, keep overnight in fridge and then slowly warm up in room temperature for an hour.
The outer shell had a nice burnt caramel flavour, followed by a firm custardy inside with hints of rum and vanilla. Texture-wise, it was similar to the Malay kueh bika ambon, except much denser and with a more crunchy outer layer.
I was still slowly running down our alcohol stash in the fridge, and thought that it would pair well with our last bottle of sweet lychee wine from Knight Black Horse, a winery in Thailand.
Yes, Thailand does produce wine. And also yes, you can make wine from lychees. It was sweet, as expected, but not cloying so. It went very well with the canelé, and made for a delightful mid-day tea break. Minus the tea, that is.
Her second successful find was at Nassim Hill Bakery at Tanglin, where she had a lunch gathering with some old friends.
The ones from Nassim were more crunchy on the outside, but less chewy and flavourful on the inside. They were still nice, but because they were made to be kid-friendly, no rum was added.
I was tempted to pair it with a glass of rum, but unfortunately, we didn’t have any at home. It’s something that I hope to address soon, now that we know the specific style of rum that we like.
I asked The Wife which of the two canelés she preferred, but she couldn’t decide. She liked the outer shell from Nassim Hill but the inside filling from Patisserie G.
Given that Patisserie G is much closer to us, the next time we buy some home, we could blast them in the oven at high heat for a short duration to crisp up the skin. Or, if she goes to Nassim Hill again, we could try soaking them in some rum before eating.
Hopefully, neither of them decide to stop making canelés anytime soon.
