Monday, November 05, 2007

Almond & Green Tea Tuiles

4 November 2007

I don't know how to pronounce this. I think "tuiles" sounds like "twills". Tuile is French for tile. It's a thin and crispy French cookie that got its name because it copies the shape of roofing tiles once used in France.

I got the recipe from Do What I Like. It's almost similar to the almond crisps that I had tried (unsuccessfully) before. The only difference is adding some melted butter for this tuile recipe. I left out the green tea powder initially as I wanted to make 2 different flavours. Then halfway during baking, I added some green tea powder to the remaining batter to make green tea tuiles. After the bad experience from the last time I baked the almond crisps, I use Glad baking paper this time and the cookies really do not stick to the baking paper, even without greasing.


The tuile is done by spreading a thin circle of batter on the baking paper using the back of the spoon. When baking is done, you have to remove it from the tray quickly and place it over a rolling pin and press gently to make the curved shape.

Here are some of the things that happened during baking:
1. It is important to spread the batter very thinly, about the thickness of the almond. Or else the tuiles will not be crispy enough. Make sure to spread evenly too. Some of the first few tuiles that I made, break when I try to curve them on the rolling pin cos I did not spread evenly.

2. Bake 4 tuiles at a time. Cos you need to place them on the rolling pin quickly. They will become too crispy to roll when they cool down.

3. I'm not sure if my oven temperature is too high. I set at 170C but it browned quite fast and I took about 5 minutes only instead of 7-8 minutes.

The tuiles don't stay crispy for very long. It's best eaten immediately after baking. And remind you, it's so nice that you can easily finish everything at one go. I quite like the green tea flavour. Very refreshing taste. Hm... maybe can try adding cocoa powder the next time to make chocolate tuiles. :)