How was the canelé born?
The legend says that...
It all started in Bordeaux in the eighteenth century.
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At that time Bordeaux was a bustling French city drawing its wealth from exotic trade.
Bordeaux was also home of the convent of the Annociades. The nuns inhabiting those walls had close ties with traders as well as with disadvantaged people, especially children.
The nuns would retrieve from the port the wheat that fell from the holds of boats or shattered bags.
Wine makers used only egg white to cleanse their wine and would give all the unwanted yolks to the nuns for them to bake their pastry for the poor people.
Vanilla and rum were added to this delicacy in the twentieth century but the mysterious story of the canelés will always be associated to the nuns of the Annociades.
From its humble beginnings more than two centuries ago until now, the canelés always is a delight for the taste buds!
Drawings by Grégory Cornu