TWD: Translucent Maple Tuiles

Oh yeah, I am all over this. Two more days of class, then a day off, then one final Friday, one Saturday. Let's do this shit.


At least, that's what I'm trying to say to myself. Really, what I want to say is - Let's blow this popsicle stand and make some cookies. Because people? People! It snowed on Saturday. And the snow stuck. There were adults, college students, and lots of little kids racing around, bumping into each other because they couldn't look where they were going. They were too busy watching the snow fall. Mesmerized. Me? I was more than thrilled - snow and sub-freezing temps? Only a couple months late, but it's go-time. Go-time for tea, for soups or long-cooked sauces, for cookies, for Christmas music. (The jazz holidays station on Pandora? Best. Thing. Ever.) There has been lots of tea drinking and book reading under blankets. I keep restraining myself from baking sugar cookies and decorating them, because I know I'll eat them all. (Except I don't have to restrain myself too hard - whoever heard of a grocery store running out of flour mere weeks before Christmas?!?)


And. And. I got to bake with people. Yes, they live hundreds of miles away, but I never get to bake with them. My schedule is teh suck (at least until this coming Sunday - hee!), and stoopid classes keep getting in the way. So when I chatted with Kayte, Nancy, Tracey, and Margaret and the timing actually worked to Twitterbake with them, I was over the moon. Because while baking is fun in and of itself, baking with people is beyond kickass. I miss my Wisconsin baking buddy like whoa, and have yet to find similarly crazy baker people in the Chapel Hill area.


So tuiles. They were baked, with much chatter about size (I made mine slightly bigger than marble-sized) and baking temperature (350*F for me, but my oven runs hot so that'd be ~375*F for most people) and shaping methods (to shape or not to shape!). I was not the only one to thank god this was a much sturdier tuile recipe than the one from a Daring Bakers challenge a while back - no cracking, no weirdness. I could scoop them off the parchment with my offset spatula and drape them on a rolling pin and voila! Pretty little curved tuiles. Now, I've been eating them plain, but I have a hunch that there are a couple good options for these. If you're fussy and patient (of which I am neither), I'd suggest rolling them around something with a very small diameter and making cylinders out of them. Whip together some whipped cream, mascarpone, and a splash of rum, and fill your little cigar cookies. If you're less patient, leave them flat or just slightly curved, and just pipe or dollop the same mixture on top. Plain or adorned, these would make a really wonderful and different addition to a cookie tray.


Last Week: Devilish Shortcakes
Next Week: Apple-Coconut Family Cake