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Tuiles & humidity, any solutions?


scordelia

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I finally decided to tackle tuilles today, and make lovely little tuille bowls to serve my homemade lemon tarragon sorbet in.

They came out of the oven great and molded beautifully (why had I been afraid of this?--they are not hard), but they got soggy and collapsed later. It is very hot and muggy here right now, so I think the humidityy got to them, but I have some left. Is there a good way to crisp them up again?

S. Cue

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To refresh them just stick them back in a 350 f or so oven for a minue or less ( no additional color).

Once they get warm you just reshape them like you did when they were fresh.

Mind you, if it's REALLY extremely humid where you are at now, they'll get limp very quickly.

Good Luck !!!

2317/5000

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In your container you put them in, you can use a deiscant to take the humidity out of the sealed container. If this is too hard to come by, a small packet of rice could perform similarly.

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Dean Anthony Anderson

"If all you have to eat is an egg, you had better know how to cook it properly" ~ Herve This

Pastry Chef: One If By Land Two If By Sea

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At 100% humidity, even using dessicants or rice, etc., won't really stop the tuile from virtually collapsing on the way to the plate.

At least that's been my experience.

If you are in a restaurant setting, you can have a 1/2 sheetpan, with your tuiles on it, and put a sheet of plastic, wrapping plastic, over it and put the sheetpan onttop of a convection oven that's on and it can actually keep your tuiles nice and fresh and crisp.

This worked for me in Miami where the humidity is off the charts, of course!

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2317/5000

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  • 2 weeks later...
If you are in a restaurant setting, you can have a 1/2 sheetpan, with your tuiles on it, and put a sheet of plastic, wrapping plastic, over it and put the sheetpan onttop of a convection oven that's on and it can actually keep your tuiles nice and fresh and crisp.

This worked for me in Miami where the humidity is off the charts, of course!

\

DC in the summer....swamp humidity here...

Ted, are you saying you just put the sheetpan on top of the oven, just during service, and they have to grab from there when plating?

The other day, I made a batch of classically shaped tuiles (shaped/curved on a pin). Even with limestone in the box, they did not survive. I would like to make some teardrop-shaped, and then curved up, because I got these cool new bone china plates for dessert, that are teardrop shaped. What can I do to keep these crisp?

Also, I intend on making some very small florentine type tuiles, just punched out with a small round cutter, about 1 1/4" -- to be a topper on a small round scoop of ice cream. What advice does anyone have about these?

I like to cook with wine. Sometimes I even add it to the food.

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Also, I intend on making some very small florentine type tuiles, just punched out with a small round cutter, about 1 1/4" -- to be a topper on a small round scoop of ice cream.  What advice does anyone have about these?

Here in Southern California the humidity isn't too bad...florentines stay crisp for quite a while with no problem....They might get soggy in contact with the ice cream though. ...I've made small round ones and dipped the bottom in chocolate. These can be used as a garnish with ice cream without getting soggy.

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That's what I did...

The tuile-ish thing I was doing was a "Cocoa Stick", made of glucose, simple syrup, and cocoa, and they would get soggy very quickly.

So, there was a convection oven as part of the station setup, where we were doing souffles, and I remembered in the Balaguer book he is always saying "store on a hot plate" about a lot of garnishes, etc., so that kind of came back to my head and I tried the 1/2 sheet pan idea.

It worked.

In New Mexico when the "swamp coolers" kick in, just about nothing will work but I haven't tried the technique here yet.

If you are in a restaurant setting, you can have a 1/2 sheetpan, with your tuiles on it, and put a sheet of plastic, wrapping plastic, over it and put the sheetpan onttop of a convection oven that's on and it can actually keep your tuiles nice and fresh and crisp.

This worked for me in Miami where the humidity is off the charts, of course!

\

DC in the summer....swamp humidity here...

Ted, are you saying you just put the sheetpan on top of the oven, just during service, and they have to grab from there when plating?

2317/5000

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For florentine/nougatine type tuiles you could try adding some pectin to the recipe. The recipes we used in school included some pectin and it acted sort of like an internal dessicant, allowing us to use the nougatine as a layer in a mousse cake and have it stay crunchy. I don't know if it would work this way in a cigarette paste type tuile though. Here is a recipe we used for a pecan nougatine, though you could use almonds or other nuts instead:

63 g sugar

1.25 g pectine (we used apple pectin)

37 g glucose

63 g butter

87 g pecan pieces

mix 1/4 of the sugar with the pectin and set aside. melt together butter, sugar and glucose and bring to 40C. Whisk in pectin mixture, bring to a boil, and add nuts. Spread on a silicone sheet and bake at 320F until medium golden brown (about 15-20 minutes).

You'll still need to store in with a dessicant, but it should hold up a little better.

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There's nothing wrong with adding a little sucraset or other foodsafe chemical dessicant either. Unlike pecticn it has no effect on consistency, even in larger amounts. I typically include some in any component that gets limp/sticky.

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Where do you get sucraset?

I've never heard of it, am glad to make it a friend!

There's nothing wrong with adding a little sucraset or other foodsafe chemical dessicant either. Unlike pecticn it has no effect on consistency, even in larger amounts. I typically include some in any component that gets limp/sticky.

2317/5000

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What more can you tell me about Sucrasec? I've been working in a pastry kitchen in the bone dry environment of Phoenix, and will be returning to my beloved NYC in a couple of weeks. Needless to say, the humidity levels are radically different. How about caramel? What can be done to keep it stable in 80% humidity?

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  • 5 weeks later...

I need help. Have been trying several tuile recipes for desserts at a restaurant which is directly on the water here in San Diego. I'm storing them airtight, but when doing a large amount of platings, most lose their turgidity. Anyone have a bullet proof recipe or just some hints on what I can do?

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Two things:

Pack them in airtight containers with silica gel packs, if you aren't already. Silica is a readilly purchaseable, reusable commercial dessicant.

If that doesn't nip the soggies in the bud, try adding a little sucrasec to the mix. Its a foodsafe sugar stabilizer (really meant for sagarwork, but usefull in tuiles too). I use about 5g per pound of batter.

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Here in Hawaii I have to put everything in air tight containers (screw top glass bottles work best) with a packet of Drierite. Drierite is a dessicant; it's a blue granule that turns pink as it absorbs moisture.

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I need help. Have been trying several tuile recipes for desserts at a restaurant which is directly on the water here in San Diego. I'm storing them airtight, but when doing a large amount of platings, most lose their turgidity. Anyone have a bullet proof recipe or just some hints on what I can do?

Hi,

Iam in San Diego too. We wrap the containers up a few times for air tight.

-NhumiSD

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  • 11 years later...
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