Recipes & Food Styling

Lavender Canelés for Bastille Day!

This post – and scrumptious recipe – is the result of too many years of Paris withdrawals!

I was so nervous about how these would turn out- making them requires baking with rum and even beeswax, which was a first for me. Turns out, making these wonderful treats is a piece of cake (pun intended)! They turned out (almost) as good as canelés in Paris!

Joyeux Jour de Bastille!.

Lavender Canelés

3 cups milk

1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and scraped (or ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract)

15 tablespoons butter

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup flour

1 large egg yolk

2 large eggs

1/2 cup lavender buds

3 tablespoons rum

1/3 cup beeswax, finely chopped

In a small saucepan on the stovetop over medium heat, combine milk and vanilla. Heat the milk just until it starts to boil, and then remove from the heat. Add 3 tablespoons of butter. Set aside to cool.

Using a large mixing bowl and a wire whisk, whisk together the sugar and the flour.

Separately, whisk together the eggs and the rum. Next, using the whisk, whisk the egg mixture into the sugar-and-flour mixture. Next, whisk in the milk mixture. Add the lavender buds. Save a few for garnishing. Pour the batter into a container and let it refrigerate overnight.

In a small saucepan on the stovetop over low heat, melt the beeswax, and add the remaining butter. Stir the wax and butter together while the mixture heats. Once it is well blended, remove from heat. Using a pastry brush, brush the insides of the molds with the mixture. 

Remove the batter from the refrigerator at least 1 hour before baking.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Pour the batter into the molds.

Place the molds into the oven, and bake until canelés are dark brown, about one hour. Remove from oven, and remove each canelé from its mold. Set them upright on a cooling rack to cool. Enjoy while warm!