Thyme canelé amuse

How to make some delicious savory thyme canelés. I serve them as an amuse with some mushroom cream and mandarin zest.

The canelé

375 grams	milk
25 grams	sugar
5 grams	salt
35 grams	butter
10 springs	thyme
110 grams	flour
50 grams	egg yolk
25 grams	cognac

First pour the milk into a saucepan together with the sugar, the salt, the butter and the springs of thyme. Now heat this until the butter is melted. Meanwhile mix the flour with the egg yolk and the milk mixture until it’s completely smooth. Now cover this and let it rest in your fridge for 12 hours. Now take a knob of butter and melt this on a low heat in a saucepan. Use a small brush to add a layer of butter on some canelé molds. Then take your canelé batter and add the cognac. Now mix this well for 1 minute and then put it through a fine sieve. Fill your molds just below the top and bake them for 5 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius. After that tap the tray and bake them for another 40 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius. Remove them from the molds and let them cool down completely.

The mushroom cream

400 grams	mushrooms
2	shallots
30 grams	butter
3 grams	salt
5 springs	thyme
150 grams	beef stock
15 grams	sherry vinegar

Start by cutting the mushrooms into thin slices. Then take the shallots, clean them and cut them in slices. Now heat up a baking pan and add the butter. Also add the shallots, the salt, the chopped mushrooms and the leaves from the springs of thyme. Bake this until it starts to color and then deglaze it with the beef stock and the sherry vinegar. Reduce this completely. Then transfer it into a blender and spin it till smooth. Once it’s smooth season it with salt when necessary and then put it in a piping bag.

How to finish the amuse

Take a small mushroom and trim the stem. Now cut it in thin slices on a mandolin and then cut those slices in half. Then make a small hole in the canelés and fill them with the mushroom cream. Pipe a small dot of the cream on top and zest a little bit of mandarin zest on there as well. Decorate the top with the mushroom slices and finish it off with some mushroom powder. The canelés are best served right after baking, but otherwise just reheat them for 5 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius. Enjoy!