Saturday, January 31, 2009

When All Else Fails, Read the Directions!!!

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.

"Traditionally, tuiles are thin, crisp almond cookies that are gently molded over a rolling pin or arched form while they are still warm. Once set, their shape resembles the curved French roofing tiles for which they're named."

I was fascinated by the suggestion that you make a stencil template and then use a spatula to spread the dough over the template.  Kind of like a reverse cookie cutter.  I had nedver done it before...and I have to say, I don't really look forward to doing it again in the near future because I totally suck at it.  For my first attempt, I cut out a palm tree template using a piece of cardboard.  This was no easy feat, there are a lot of tricky angles.

As I peered into the oven to watch them bake, my heart sank....I was horrified to see they had melted into blobs of liquid.  I had never seen cookies do that before.  And then it hit me.  I forgot to add the flour.  I was completely stunned.  I had already tossed my cardboard template in the garbage I had to re-think what shape I was going to do. 

So I thought, okay, my daughter is turning 1 this month, I'll make them shaped like the number 1!!  However, this time around, my batter was so thick it stuck to the template and the dough barely touched the cookie sheet.  By this time I was getting really frustrated at the fact that I must be the only person who can't make these cookies and how could I screw it up not once, but twice.

Attempt number three is far less glorious than my original intention, but it worked.  Simple rectangles left to cool on wooden rolling pin.  At least I had to pair it with something interesting...how about guava-strawberry mousse?

2 comments:

aTxVegn said...

Aw, it was still a fun challenge. I'm sure the mousse made it extra special!

Anonymous said...

Well, the final product still looks great! Don't feel bad about the flour...you know, I once made coconut cupcakes where I doubled the cocnut milk...oh, sadness.