January Challenge: Making Tuiles

It's the start of 2009 and I am quite pleased with this year's first Daring Bakers challenge, making Tuiles! It's surprisingly easy and very creative! This is one recipe to keep and will be specially fun to mold into different shapes and artistic pieces.

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.

For this month, the rules were: (1) use one of the batter recipes given. In my case, i actually used the recipe from Chef Angelique (2) shape it anyway you like and you can do it before (using a stencil) or right after baking. I actually used a simple pattern to achieve a circle shape before baking, and i molded the Tuile like a serving bowl just right after baking. Lastly, (3) pair it with something light. I paired my Tuile with chocolate and durian ice cream (yum, yum!) and I also rolled an extra piece to munch with the ice cream.

Following is a recipe taken from a book called “The Chocolate Book”, written by female Dutch Master chef Angélique Schmeinck.

Preparation time: batter 10 minutes, waiting time 30 minutes,
Baking time: 5-10 minutes per batch

Ingredients:

65 grams / ¼ cup / 2.3 ounces softened butter (not melted but soft)
60 grams / ½ cup / 2.1 ounces sifted confectioner’s sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar (7 grams or substitute with a dash of vanilla extract)
2 large egg whites (slightly whisked with a fork)
65 grams / 1/2 cup / 2.3 ounces sifted all purpose flour
1 table spoon cocoa powder/or food coloring of choice
Butter/spray to grease baking sheet

Oven: 180C / 350F

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 overmix.

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).

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. Press the stencil on the baking sheet and use an off sided spatula to spread batter. Leave some room in between your shapes.

For some decoration, I was planning to make chocolate strips. I realized quite late in the process that i don't have cocoa powder so i used 1 oz of unsweetened chocolate bars melted with a little butter and mixed it with a small part of the Tuile batter, placed it in a piping bag for use later.

Bake the Tuile in a preheated oven (180C/350F) 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.

Check out my lovely assistant in this whole process...

EJ's head can fit into this circle cut out. I used this to shape my batter :-)
In less than 10 minutes, the Tuiles are gone including the ice cream. Success!