It doesn't look like much, but surely this is the city's best strip-mall French bakery.
The namesake cannelle, spelled canelé or cannelé in the country of its birth, is a French pastry made from custard batter. Traditionally it's flavored with rum and vanilla. Superior cannelles are baked in metal molds brushed with a mixture that includes butter and beeswax; these, respectively, help to caramelize the surface while the cannelles are baking and to free them from the molds when they're done. The result (shown in the first photo that follows) is a crunchy crust surrounding a moist, custardlike interior.
Also shown: a Paris-Brest, which in this case embraces mocha cream; a slice of a gateau Breton, whose buttery flavor the patisserie describes as a "cross between a shortbread and an enriched pound cake"; and a danish. The bakery serves many more-familiar varieties, including apple, cheese, cherry, chocolate, and raisin. But if I had to guess the most recent addition to the lineup, I'd go with guava.
Cannelle Patisserie
7559 31st Ave. (75th-76th Sts., at the back of the parking lot), East Elmhurst, Queens
718-565-6200
Also
5-11 47th Ave. (at 5th St.), Long Island City
718-937-8500
www.CannellePatisserie.com
