Just can't get past that nasty butt

Last month, Darlene ordered two dozen cannelés from Williams-Sonoma. We'd never had them before, as they seemed to be a luxurious, decadent treat only available online or in European pastry shoppes.

FedEx delivered the styrofoam-and-dry-ice package. I took a look at them and couldn't figure out what they were (besides possibly the mutant offspring of a baby Bundt cake). Darlene told me that cannelés are French in origin, are made with crepe batter and baked in muffin-type molds. The have a layer of beeswax (!) on top and a scorched, creme brulée-ish bottom. The inside is sweet and spongy. They stay in the freezer until ready for consumption, when they're thawed at room temperature for about an hour.


None o' your beeswax!

Darlene and I are in complete agreement regarding the Williams-Sonoma cannelés: They taste great, but (and it's a big but) the scorched bottom is inedible. Yeah, I get it. They're supposed to be scorched... but the damage goes a half-inch deep. And since these 24 cannelés ran $49 plus next-day shipping, that's an expensive chunk of dough to be sliced off and discarded.


Hacked off? Yes. Both literally and figuratively.

About a week after the Williams-Sonoma cannelés arrived, we spotted cannelés locally... in the freezer section of Trader Joe's! Of course, we bought a box. We thawed a couple and tried them, expecting to be disappointed in their quality vs. Williams-Sonoma. We were surprised to find the Trader Joe's cannelés were not only just as good as the Williams-Sonoma ones, but the bottoms were only lightly singed. Trader Joe's price? $4.99/half-dozen. Yeah -- that's about a third of the price.


How could we have ever doubted you, Trader Joe?

Now the trick is to make them from scratch. Until we crack the code, we'll be giving Trader Joe's our cannelés business.

P.Ho