Tuiles a la Daring Bakers

Its that time again ladies and gentlemen, that’s right… Daring Bakers Challenge Time! This month’s challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.

A tuile is a very light, crisp cookie which can be molded into any shape and filled or drizzled with anything you would like! The tuiles may be shaped prior to baking using a stencil and then shaped while still warm. I made a circular stencil out of a piece of hard plastic, but sadly I was unsuccessful… I don’t know if my stencil was too thin (needed thicker plastic sheet?) or if my batter was too wet (therefore not spreading as well?) but I did not really enjoy this challenge. I became frustrated and ended up using a piping bag to pipe shapes onto the cookie sheet. Good… I thought… seemed to be working…. until I tried to mold them!?!?! ugh… I must have piped the dough too thick because when I tried to mold them using various things (spoon, measuring cup, large spoon handle) they would crack at a certain point (and they were still quite warm so I know that wasn’t the problem). So a few of my tuiles actually turned out well (and those are the ones that I am showing in my pictures hahaha!!). I paired them with some whipped cream and peaches. Hubby and I had them for dessert on night and I must admit I was not really impressed. Maybe because I looooove my sweets, but these just did not cut it for me! I found that they didn’t have much flavour. Disappointing… I thought about attempting these suckers in to see if I would have better luck (with the changes I discussed above) but since I didn’t really like the taste of them this time, I decided not to.

While I didn’t like making the tuiles, many other Daring Bakers were much more successful than I and have made some wonderful creations!!! And I strongly encourage you to check out their blogs here before you decide not to give these a try because I am definitely in the minority on this.

 

Tuiles
From The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeinck

Ingredients 

¼ cup softened butter (not melted but soft)
½ cup sifted confectioner’s sugar
dash of vanilla extract
2 large egg whites (slightly whisked with a fork)
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 table spoon cocoa powder/or food coloring of choice (if you want to add colour to your tuiles)
Butter/spray to grease baking sheet

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350F
2. Using a hand whisk or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (low speed) and cream butter, sugar and vanilla to a paste. Keep stirring while you gradually add the egg whites. Continue to add the flour in small batches and stir to achieve a homogeneous and smooth batter/paste. Be careful to not over mix.
3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up. (This batter will keep in the fridge for up to a week, take it out 30 minutes before you plan to use it).
4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease with either butter/spray and chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. This will help spread the batter more easily if using a stencil/cardboard template.
5. Press the stencil on the bakingsheet and use an off sided spatula to spread batter. Leave some room in between your shapes. Mix a small part of the batter with the cocoa and a few drops of warm water until evenly colored. Use this colored batter in a paper piping bag and proceed to pipe decorations on the tuiles.
6. Bake tuiles in preheated oven for about 5-10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Immediately release from baking sheet and proceed to shape/bend the cookies in the desired shape. These cookies have to be shaped when still warm, you might want to bake a small amount at a time or maybe put them in the oven to warm them up again or place a baking sheet toward the front of the warm oven, leaving the door half open. The warmth will keep the cookies malleable.
7. Shape immediately after baking using for instance a rolling pin, a broom handle, cups, cones….

~ by mixbyhand on January 29, 2009.