Cannelé meltdown

After a few years of silent longing, I finally bit the bullet and bought eight copper cannelé molds and some beeswax. If you've never had them before, cannelés come from Bordeaux and are small, custardy cakes with incredibly molten, lacquered crusts whose hues range from a beautiful burgundy color to pitch black. The best crusts are formed by coating the interiors of the molds with a layer of beeswax. They are highly addictive, and notoriously difficult to make.

I spent a couple days fooling around with them, and used Pierre Herme's recipe from Secrets Gourmands. Some would get stuck in the molds and tear when I tried to get them out. Some would rise up to great irregular heights while baking, which created a lumpy bottom when they were unmolded. Some turned black while others stayed pale, even though they had been baked for the same amount of time.

Despite their complete and utter lack of consistency, they all tasted very, very good. Obviously more experimentation and further sampling will be required.