Tosca Pâtisserie’s canelés in Penang
Much like how char koay teow and Penang go hand in hand, pastries and Paris couple superbly. One thing to know about Penangites is that we don’t say no to anything tasty, even if the edibles are sweet dainty cakes instead of wok hei-tinted noodles.
Here on the island, we have bakeries that churn out decent macarons, impressive kouign-amann, and even rather remarkable croissants. But almost none that offer satisfactory canelés, a notoriously challenging-to-make French pastry – that is, until Tosca Pâtisserie.
As a Penang lang through and through, there’s no way we would pass up on anything yummy. So, we made our way to the pâtisserie to get our paws on some caramel-coloured treats and to bring you this review.
Ambience at Tosca Pâtisserie
Tosca Pâtisserie opened their doors in 2023, and has since become something of a canelé specialist, nestled in the heart of George Town in Penang.
Their whereabouts is not dissimilar to most of the cafe gems in George Town – the bakery blends in well with the miscellany of old shoplots and Asian eateries within an extensive heritage shophouse along Lebuh Cintra, where the hunt for a parking space is, as always, a huge pain.
As their focus seems to be on the takeaway business, the shop is rather compact with limited seating areas of petite tables and benches for patrons who would like to linger in the modest ambience for a while longer.
The Scandinavian interior of the pâtisserie combines pale wood and clean lines, giving the space an uncluttered charm, which – during our visit – was dressed in the holiday spirit with adequate Christmas decors of a charming bauble-decked tree and canelé-statuettes donning miniature Santa hats.
French delicacies at Tosca Pâtisserie
The emblematic dessert of Bordeaux, a city in France, and the holy grail of Tosca Pâtisserie, is the small but mighty canelé. These tiny gateaux are pesky little things to nail, though they are born out of ingredients that are seemingly simple, but the technicalities and execution are far from uncomplicated.
The result? Petite morsels that boast a deep bronze hue with a gorgeous sheen, which is an outcome of a good fluted copper mould that gives the canelé its shape and its name. Cut one open, and you’ll find impossibly custardy insides stippled with air pockets and vanilla bean. Truly a thing of beauty.
One thing to note is that canelés aren’t desserts to judge based on our Asian tasty measure of not-too-sweet ranking. These beauties will be sweet right from the moment you sink your teeth into the crisp shell that gives way to its creamy insides, but that is exactly what makes them so incredibly addicting.
Flavoured canelés
What drew us to Tosca Pâtisserie was its unique flavoured varieties of canelés, apart from the intrigue of finally tasting a close-to-authentic rarity of a French dessert in Penang, seeing that the owner of the pâtisserie had been classically trained at a renowned culinary institute Le Cordon Bleu in London.
We were served our box of 4 mixed-flavoured canelés (RM52), accompanied with a gentle but meticulous advice by the waitress to let the pastries defrost for 5 minutes before digging into them, but not too much over 7 minutes or the canelés will lose their crisp lustre and flavour. Wanting the best experience tasting these gems, we did as such.
The best way to judge a pastry is to see if they are exceptional on their own, without any extra embellishments to aid in the flavour of its unadorned base, and so we started off with the Classic Canelé. Its visual was promising – with the promised honeycombed middles sealed by a perfectly caramelised crust – and we were pleased to find that its taste delivered as such.
Now fascinated, we picked a Chritsmas exclusive flavour as our next target, the Pistachio Canelé, a very festive flavour with a single roasted pistachio as a cherry on top on the mound of sweet goodness.
This one comes complete with a pistachio ganache injected down its middle, with a nutty flavour prominent enough to stand out against the saccharine canelé base, and a lush butteriness that melds stunningly with its cloudlike texture. This was gone within seconds.
We went straight for the Raspberry Canelé – another Christmas flavour – which cut open to reveal a bleeding streak of vibrant raspberry ganache which twangs nicely against the gooey vanilla and the sweet chew of the crust.
After rounds of oohs and aahs, we declared this our favourite – thus far.
Saving the prime for last, expectations for the Teh Tarik Canelé were rising by the minute given the fine execution of the previous flavours, and the intrigue behind the marriage of a beloved local flavour in an exceedingly French dessert.
Unfortunately, one nibble in and we were quickly disenchanted – the profuse sweetness of the ganache threw us off and there wasn’t a hint of the comforting teh tarik flavour we’re familiar with.
Despite the underwhelming finish, we were chuffed with the entire experience – trust delicate French sweet treats to charm our pants off any day.
Seasalt Caramel Almond Cake
Our next dessert is also a cake but not in the form of gumdrop-shaped beauties. Tosca’s signature cake, the Seasalt Caramel Almond Cake (RM30) very nearly outshone the canelés.
Its hefty size and the generous striates of caramel that held together the thicket of almond slices capping the cake, made us skeptical about its possibly cloying flavour, but boy, were we wrong.
The crumb of the cake held its integrity well without having to possess a body of a rock, each mouthful was perfectly moist and moreish with the crunchy crown of almonds.
But its flavour was what knocked it out of the park – the robust saltiness of the sea salt caramel hit us unexpectedly and satisfyingly, elevating the otherwise plain and predictable sweetness that may get more excessive with subsequent bites. Truly divine.
One of this golden hunk is a rather substantial portion, so it is definitely a great dessert for sharing, though we don’t blame you if you’ll want it all to yourself.
The verdict
Our only gripe – more a preference than a complaint – is that we were expecting flavoured canelés to be actually flavoured in the entirety of its batter, instead of just pumps of flavoured ganache encased within vanilla-based canelés.
Nevertheless, the ones we nabbed at Tosca Pâtisserie were heavenly, and even more so with a strong cup of coffee.
Address: 74, Lebuh Cintra, George Town, 10200 George Town, Penang
Opening hours: Wed – Mon 12pm-8pm (Closed on Tuesdays)
Contact: 011-2323 7317 | Tosca Pâtisserie Facebook | Instagram
Photography by Jia-Ju
Cover image adapted from: The Smart Local Malaysia