Canneles at Palo Alto Baking Co

[ssfire]

Palo Alto Baking Co (on California Street) has pretty good canneles. In terms of overall texture (inside and out), I think they are about as perfect as you can get: better than canneles at Boulette's Larder, Mission Beach Cafe, or Bay Bread. However, they don't have quite the intense rum flavor that I normally expect. Still, an entirely respectable canele (see photo)

[ssfire]

Here are photos of two other canneles. Mission Beach Cafe (photo #1) sports a candied orange peel accent. Photo #2 shows the cannele from Bay Bread. Both of these canneles have a creamy custard inside; to me, it seems sort of undercooked. The Mission Beach Cafe canneles are slightly more dense, with a somewhat crunchier coating. Both have the signature deep rum flavor. The major bonus of the canneles from Mission Beach Cafe: they are hot out of the oven when the cafe opens at 7 AM.

[Claudette]

Nice photos!

Canneles are tricky to make (I've made dozens), and the ones at Palo Alto Baking were dry, spongy, and tough by the time I got there at 4:30pm (very similar to the disappointing ones at Payard Patisserie in NYC, which I got at 9am!).

[ceekskat]

Glad burntcream had the same question as I did:-) Also, I've never heard of this place. Is there anything else that's good? Always looking for a good bakery in the PA area. Thanks.

[ssfire]

I didn't sample the other items at Palo Alto Baking Co. I tend to stop by for some canneles when I visit the California Ave. farmer's market on Sunday.

As for bakery items in the PA area, here is my short list:

- Cafe Borrone on El Camino in Menlo Park has sticky buns and twice-baked almond croissants, hot out of the oven, shortly after they open (7 AM M-F, 8 AM Sat/Sun). Both are very good.
- Satura cakes on University has interesting almond croissants (not twice baked, but it has several layers of "crunchy coating," which makes it very ... interesting, and good). They also have a green tea panna cotta that is to die for. I also like their green tea cream puffs: they have the same "multiple layers of crunchy coating" as the almond croissants to keep them from getting soggy.
- Douce France at Town and Country has a really good affogato al caffe, made with vanilla gelato.
- Caffe del Doge on University has croissants hot out of the oven shortly after they open (7AM M-F, 8 AM Sat/Sun). I like their Marco Polo espresso drink infused with Cardamom; it comes in a martini glass, which is brilliant, because you wind up sipping equal amounts from the bottom layer (espresso) and the top layer (infused cream).

[rworange]

Thanks for the tips. I was a fan of Palo Alto Baking Company's rye bread, but I haven't tried it since they changed ownership about a year back

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Cafe Borrone
1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, CA 94025

Palo Alto Baking Company
381 S California Ave, Palo Alto, CA

Caffe del Doge
419 University Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94301

Douce France
855 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA 94301

Satura Cakes
320 University Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94301

[burntcream]

How is canneles pronounced?

[Atomica]

Can-eh-lay.

[Carrie 218]

They don't look blackened enough for my taste... Were the exterior crispy/crunchy?

[ssfire]

The exterior is more chewy than crunchy.