I read the recipe for these in the NYT, along the lines of "oh please, give me a break" but the idea stayed with me. Since I love cannelés de Bordeaux but never, ever want to make them, and since a treat seemed a propos for the holiday weekend, I decided to give this recipe a try for breakfast this morning.
These are truly delicious, chewy outside, custardy inside with incredible flavor from the brown butter. These are really stellar muffins very similar to the taste of cannelés indeed but incredibly easy to make. I know this because I made them before I had my coffee this morning and they still turned out beautifully.
I made only one change to the recipe below. American recipes are always too sweet for me and I reduced the sugar in the recipe by half, down to one cup of brown sugar instead of two. I think I could have gone even lower, to 3/4 of a cup. That will be the direction next time.
Recipe, here.