Mocha cannelès made with dark chocolate and Kahlúa. Oh.My.Word.

If you don’t have traditional molds, you can use a muffin or popover pan.

Make these. Eat them. Swoon.

Makes 18 – 20

Ingredients

500ml (2 cups + 2 scant tbsp) whole milk
50g (3 1/2 tbsp) unsalted butter, diced
1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla paste or extract
70g (2 1/2oz) dark chocolate
100g (3/4 cup) all-purpose (plain) flour
250g (2 cups) powdered (confectioner’s) sugar
20g (scant 3 tbsp) unsweetened cocoa powder
pinch salt
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
80ml (1/3 cup) Kahlúa

Directions

Add milk, butter and vanilla (bean) to a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. If using a vanilla bean, lower heat to minimum and let steep for 10 minutes then remove vanilla bean.

Grate chocolate into a bowl and pour hot milk over it. Stir gently to melt chocolate then set aside to cool a little.

Whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa and salt in a mixing bowl. In another small bowl, gently beat eggs and yolks together.

Make a well in the flour mixture and pour eggs in, then pour in milk mixture. Use a spatula to combine everything gently. Add Kahlúa and stir to combine.

Strain mixture through a fine mesh strainer into a clean bowl or jug (pitcher) and allow to cool to room temperature, uncovered. When cool, cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for anywhere from 24 to 72 hours.

When ready to bake, butter molds very well (even silicon molds!) and preheat oven to 220°C (430°F) with a baking sheet in centre of oven. To butter the molds, I soften (but not melt) about 15g (1 tbsp) of butter in the microwave then use a small silicon pastry brush to paint it quite thickly into the molds.

When oven is up to temperature, very gently stir cold batter until smooth – it will have separated and the layer on top may be quite hard to incorporate, so it will take some time. You don’t want to add air bubbles so use a spatula, not a whisk.

Fill molds almost to the top (return batter to fridge between batches if you’re not baking them all at once), place on hot baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Turn temperature down to 200°C (400°F) without opening oven door and bake for a further 50 minutes.

If using metal molds, turn out immediately, or if using silicon molds, let rest for 10 minutes before turning out to cool completely on a wire rack.