Tuilles (tuiles) - Bake-Off XII

[Kerry Beal]

RecipeGullet appears to have no tuille recipes. But there sure are a lot of mentions in the forums. Everything from savory -crab tuilles at the Fat Duck, parmesan tuilles, sesame tuilles, foie tuilles - to sweet - hazelnut tuilles, almond/orange tuilles, pistachio tuilles.

Problems with tuille production have been discussed - for example this topic on the effect of humidity on tuilles. There is a brief discussion about the use of yogurt containers as forms for tuilles.

There are excellent pictures of tuille production by a chef at the CIA contributed by chiantiglace. Look for the post of May 29, 2006.

Of course the pronunciation of the word has been a frequent topic of discussion. As well the spelling.

Tuilles seem to be a challenge for many, but can provide an extremely attractive vessel for a dessert, a finishing touch, or just a nice tasty little bite.

So - let's see them - your tuilles, tuiles, lace cookies, florentines... anything morphologically resembling a tuille.

Don't forget to post your recipes in recipeGullet if you are willing to share - it really needs some good tuille recipes.

[gfron1]

I'm hoping for some good technique discussion. These things aren't supposed to be so difficult, but I've never had one that I would say turned out exactly how I want. Bonus points if someone can help me make a perfect sphere (two halves) for my longest running project.

[alanamoana]

I'm hoping for some good technique discussion.  These things aren't supposed to be so difficult, but I've never had one that I would say turned out exactly how I want.  Bonus points if someone can help me make a perfect sphere (two halves) for my longest running project.

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i've never actually seen anyone make spheres with tuile batter (of any kind)...usually sugar or chocolate...but you've gotten my gears turning as i do have some recipes that might work in this situation...hmmm

[Tri2Cook]

Tuile spheres! That sounds interesting.

I recently made some cocoa nib tuiles as part of my first attempt to replicate the Chocolate Delice made at the Fat Duck (without having had the original and without a recipe, just a description given by Heston in one of his Kitchen Science shows, so it's really a somewhat futile attempt but I'm going to keep working on it until I'm happy with it) but it doesn't show up in the picture because it's holding the chocolate sorbet. They were just a basic tuile sprinkled with cocoa nibs before baking.

I also recently used tuiles to make little cups that I stuck on top of another dessert I made (chocolate biscuit, chocolate-raspberry mousse and raspberries layered in half sphere molds, sprayed with white chocolate, topped with the tuile cups filled with raspberries and plated with raspberry coulis and chocolate sauce). They were raspberry tuiles (raspberry puree in the batter).

I haven't done much with savory tuiles and I don't really do the sweet ones all that often but I'm hoping for some inspiration seeing what eveybody else is doing.

[butterscotch]

I'm hoping for some good technique discussion.  These things aren't supposed to be so difficult, but I've never had one that I would say turned out exactly how I want.  Bonus points if someone can help me make a perfect sphere (two halves) for my longest running project.

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you would have to bake them on top of a metal bowl, i think.

either that our cut out little concave shaped long Vee shapes all around the periminter of a flat disk. otherwise you'd have pleats.

[jumanggy]

I'm not sure if this gets any points, but please be kind... It's my first time to try making tuiles

I used the Chocolate Cigarettes recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme. I thought it would make a good "base recipe" to get me started on the experience. To get a good crispy one, I found I had to spread it really thinly... But then I'd have to be a lot snappier at rolling them up as soon as the come out of the oven. It wasn't as easy as I thought it'd be! I got kind of firm-ish ones that became soft really quickly. Oh well, it tasted good at least, and held its shape for the most part. I suppose it won't be as hard if I just have to drop it onto a shaping template (like a curved surface or cup), and I might be able to spread it thinner.

Cup'a tuile?

On that note, get ready for the softest tuiles ever I hadn't gotten the hang of the whole thin-is-better thing yet, so I used an offset spatula to spread the creamy tuile batter on the backs of this silicone demi-sphere mold (baked upside-down). It was nowhere near as thin as it should have been, I felt like I was frosting cupcakes (okay, a lot thinner than that maybe). I could have painted it on with a brush, that could have worked. Anyway. Some observations:

1. The tuile batter flowed down the sides of the mold further as it baked. Not a problem (it helped thin it out a little).

2. My mold had a few silicone supports (buttresses?) going in between the demispheres, so I was never going to get a perfect demisphere, unfortunately, as they got in the way.

3. I think leaving them on the mold as they cooled kind of steamed them a little, especially since they were so thick, which contributed to the softness. Just a hunch. But there's no way they're going to hold their shape without cooling on the mold!

4. They popped out of the mold really effortlessly.

5. Had I baked them right-side up, painting the insides of the molds, I think much of it would have pooled on the bottom, making it kind of a weird cakey deal, but there's a better chance of getting a true demisphere shape.

Now for the craptastic "demisphere" tuiles:

Fugalicious!

[cakewalk]

I think they look great! Did you fill them with anything? They look like they're begging for some mousse!

I made the maple tuilles from Dorrie Greenspan's book. It was my first time making tuilles as well, so I had no comparisons to make. They looked okay, spread out and honeycombed just like they were supposed to be. But they were soft, even after cooling down. They were completely pliable, had absolutely no crispness to them at all. (Which actually made them very unpleasant texturally, IMO.) I don't know what I did wrong, but a friend of mine suggested it was because of the maple syrup, that sugar would have crisped, but maple syrup doesn't. I dunno, I think maybe I didn't bake them long enough. I'm going to try a different recipe this weekend and see how they turn out.

[jumanggy]

Hahaha, thanks. I popped them into my mouth like chocolate Pringles. I didn't have any mousse on hand, but I think these won't be able to hold anything much heavier than a meringue. I just wanted to contribute to Rob's vision. In any case, I froze the rest of the batter (the recipe sounds freezable, even if Dorie/Pierre don't say so).

I have a mango tuile batter resting in the fridge. They're supposed to honeycomb, so they're quite different from these last ones I made. Very anxious about it, as usual.

[gfron1]

BTW "my vision" is still percolating. I anticipated the slide. I think I'm leaning toward taking a paper circle, lying it inside of my mold, cutting the excess, then using that as a stencil, baking the flat tuille, and as it comes out, set it in the mold. But we'll see.

[gfron1]

Today was tuile play day for me. I used the kicking legs recipe from the plated dessert cookbook. It runs, so it sucks!

But here's what I did. First a 3-D swirl. It broke but the idea is good. I cut the parchment so that as soon as it came out of the oven I lifted the center for depth.

Then I got to work on the dome. My first idea was a pac-man looking stencil. You can see it on the left of this picture.

That didn't work. I need a geometry major to figure out this strategy.

But, on a whim I smeared the batter on the backside of my form using my finger (on the right of the picture above). Surprisingly this worked! It did run...

But I broke off the run edges and ended up with this beautiful half dome.

It was paper thin so it wouldn't work for my project, but the concept works. I could paint the batter on mid-way through the first bake to thicken it.

[jumanggy]

Great idea for the spiral, Rob Cutting the parchment before applying the raw batter would definitely make it a lot easier. But I'm thinking chocolate choux pastry might be a friendlier medium for a large spiral (it'll have to bake already in 3D form inside the oven, though).

I'm no geometry major but I think it's not possible to get a demisphere from a pac-man shape without a bit of stretching. Smearing it on the back of the mold is definitely the way to go-- your mold seems to be friendlier, as mine has supports jutting out the back, as I stated above. I hope it's still crispy even when the batter is applied thickly.

Mango Tuiles (as part of a bigger project-- link goes to RecipeGullet)

It's my first attempt at these "honeycombing" batters. Very sweet and buttery. I used a pair of scissors to cut them into triangles right after coming out of the oven, as the template didn't work out well (it always spreads).

[Tri2Cook]

Cool Rob! Looks like you're getting really close to what you're after.