7 hours ago, jmacnaughtan said:I have since thought about a tuile, but I think you'd run into the same issue as with the caramel or the crepe - humidity.
The ideal, I think, would be some kind of caramel opaline tuile to refer back to the classic, but coated with cocoa butter to keep it crisp. I don't think I have the resources to do that elegantly, though.
Do you know whether Florentines are badly affected by humidity? If not, they might have the finesse, crunch and flavour profile for the cake.
I can't think about something that would remain crispy (without absorbing humidity) and does not involve chocolate...
Florentines have the same trouble, you should be forced to coat the bottom side in chocolate.
I would suggest you to use the tuile nougatine / orange tuile / lace tuile family. I never understood if this family has a coded name in French pastry, I always found it described with a boatload of different names (Ducasse calls it tuile nougatine in his pastry book, but I'm sure I've seen it with different names in other French books), so I don't think there is one. I mean the kind of tuiles you can see in this photo and in this other photo. In my opinion it would fit dobos torte much better than a tuile made with pâte à tulipe: the lace effect is really elegant; it gets a good caramel flavour; it's really thin and easy to bite (contrary to the traditional caramel). It cuts neatly while warm, so you can cook a big tuile that covers the cake, cut the round shape and then the segments. Unless you are as quick as Flash it will harden before being able to cut all the pieces, you just need to put it back in the oven for some seconds. You must coat it with cocoa butter, but you don't need an air compressor, just sift some Mycryo on both sides, not a big effort that asks for equipment you don't have, unless you want to be "traditional" in the techniques you use.
The basic tuile nougatine recipe is pretty eclectic: you can add cocoa powder or instant coffee or spices to the batter; you can add chopped nuts / seeds; you can use whatever honey you like; you can sub the orange juice with other fruit juices, or just with water. Plenty of ways to change taste/color and add crispness, while maintaning the lace effect and the thinness.
EDIT: never cut tuiles on a hot silpat, unless you want to destroy the silpat (it cuts as butter while hot). Always use parchment paper for this use. I'm sure you know this since you are a professional, but it's better to point this out if some reader wants to try it.
Teo
