12.22.2011

Tuiles and Trees

Earlier this week, Dan and I decorated our first Christmas tree together!



Apparently, if you wait until the week of Christmas to decorate your tree, all of the ornaments go on sale. We decided to do a classy tree, with glass ball ornaments.. ok so they're mostly "shatterproof" glass, aka plastic.





That same evening, I tested the good graces of my La Farine apron once again. Flipping through my cookie book, I scanned ingredient lists to find something I could actually make. (A lot of the recipes call for cream of tartar.. probably a good thing we don't have any, or Dan and I would eat way too many cookies.)

I stumbled upon tuiles, a super thin wafer cookie that is incredibly pliable when hot, and very stiff and crunchy when cooled. They also look a lot like GIANT potato chips.

The recipe toted the difficulty of making these cookies--not only do they involve an unusual shaping method, they also require precise removal from the oven. The line between crisp and chewy is almost as thin as the line between crisp and burnt.

Fortunately, I had luck on my side.



Well, except on this batch.. I used parchment paper instead of aluminum foil, because I like to experiment. Outcome: cookie fail.



I'm not going to give you a recipe, because you should really just go buy the book. I will give you some advice, however:
1. Use aluminum foil, dull side up, liberally buttered. Alice Medrich claims silicone mats work as well--I don't yet have silicone mats with which to test, but I trust her.
2. After 10 minutes in the oven, check often.
3. Once they're out of the oven, work fast. On your first batch, I recommend making just one or two cookies, so you see how they behave right out of the oven. From there, you can increase the size of your batches.
4. Feel free to re-use aluminum foil, just make sure to re-butter!

Happy baking!


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