La Toque Cuivrée — Restaurant in Bordeaux

I didn’t understand the love of canelés until I had one in Bordeaux where they originated. Now they hold a special place in my heart next to macarons and kouign amanns!

I fell in love with the amazing contrast of caramelized chewy outside and the fluffy, eggy center. Not to mention they taste like the best vanilla cake with a hint of rum.

There are two main canelé producers in Bordeaux with many outlets around town - La Toque Cuivrée and Baillardran. Having tried both, I preferred La Toque Cuivrée slightly more for their stronger rum flavor and better outside chew. It’s also nice that the price is a third of the other brand.

Both brands make canelés in a small, medium, and large size. After many taste tests (and some more for good measure), I found that the medium size had the best ratio of outside chewy crust and soft inside.

Baillardran had notable visible specks of vanilla bean in their largest size and prominent vanilla flavor, but La Toque edged them out with their superior rum taste. Either way though, you can’t go wrong.

Now if I only I could find this level of...

After being obsessed with this canelé pastry (without actually ever having one) and researching the best recipes out there for five years and finally nailing it, (yes, copper moulds from Bordeaux and beeswax) I finally had my first one here. I wanted a standard one - not the most exalted one as I was building myself up to that as I ate my way through Bordeaux. The pastries here are good enough, affordable enough to have every day, if wished and there's quite the tidy little range of other goodies on offer too. I love how they have canelés in three sizes and love how they seem to have a La Toque Cuivrée shop on every corner in Bordeaux, so really, there's no excuse...

It's a bit disappointing. The service were very bad. They say it's homemade and made everyday, let me tell you it's wrong. You can taste it and check by yourself. You can feel that was frozen and then heat. It's not too bad if you just want to try a basic cannelé, not too pricy but it's not gonna be the best one you can/could get. It's also pretty funny to see just women working there. Maybe it's a strategy to sell more if the worker is a...