It's Tuile Time...

...and fantabulous Daring Bakers are at it again!

Before we dig into the baking challenge, I have to focus our attention on our lovely hostesses this month.

Karen and Zorra displayed such grace and good humour this month on the forum (especially when we stumbled with blog names) They are everything Daring Bakers should be - helpful, funny and flexible. Deep bows, hugs and a round of applause heard around the world for Karen and Zorra - your work and enthusiasm are much much appreciated.

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.

The original Tuile recipe can be found at either one of the hostesses' blogs. I've adapted Angélique Schmeink's original recipe to be gluten free so everyone in our household can enjoy these lovely cookies... and like all gluten free adaptations of recipes there were some important differences to note.

The substitution of coconut flour for the regular wheat flour made the mixture thick, very very thick. The dough did not need the time noted in the original recipe to become firmer. Another egg white or some liquid could have been added to thin the batter as it was very difficult to spread.

I used pizza stones which lengthened the cooking time considerably from 5-10 minutes to 10 to 20 but the warm stone kept the tuiles soft until they were shaped. The cookies were not as thin as wheat flour cookies and broke much more easily. They did not shape as easily because of the lack of flexibility - perhaps Xanthan gum would have improved the elasticity.

However, after eating all the broken evidence I concluded that they were delicious no matter what shape they took.

............

Coconut Tuiles

¼ cup ounces softened butter (not melted but soft)
½ cup ounces sifted confectioner’s sugar
dash of vanilla extract
2 large egg whites
¼ cup coconut flour

Butter to grease baking sheet
Parchment paper

Preheat oven to 350F. Using a hand mixer fitted at low speed, cream butter, sugar and vanilla to a paste. Keep stirring while you gradually add the egg whites. Add the coconut flour in small batches and stir to achieve a homogeneous and smooth paste. It will be quite thick and does not need refrigeration to firm up.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and grease with butter. Press the stencil on the baking sheet and use a spatula to spread batter. Leave some room in between your shapes.

Bake in a preheated oven (180C/350F) for about 5-10 minutes until the edges turn golden brown. Immediately release from baking sheet and proceed to shape/bend the cookies in the desired shape. These cookies have to be shaped when still warm, you might want to bake a small amount at a time or maybe put them in the oven to warm them up again or place a baking sheet toward the front of the warm oven, leaving the door half open. The warmth will keep the cookies malleable.

The important second part of our challenge was to pair the Tuiles with something light. A lime flavoured sorbet with a gingery undertone was just the ticket for these coconut cookies.


Lime Ginger Coconut Sorbet

Sugar Syrup
1/4 cup lime juice
grated lime peel
i inch piece of ginger, sliced
2 cups sugar
1 cup water

Heat the above ingredients until the sugar dissolves and comes to a boil. Remove from heat and let cool. Strain out ginger and lime peel. Chill in the refrigerator or freeze in ice cube portions.

Combine the following in a blender.

1 can (400 mL) coconut milk, chilled
two ripe bananas, frozen
1 cup syrup, chilled or frozen into ice cubes

Pour into serving dishes and eat immediately or pour into a dish to be frozen further. This sorbet scooped well from containers when put in the refrigerator freezer but not the deep freezer!

i.e. Minus five Celsius or slightly below freezing was the perfect scooping temperature.

Lessons Learned

1) Gracious hostesses are worth their weight in gold.

2) My piping skills don't exist and I suffer from Tartlette envy.

3) Short challenges allow more play time with presentation which helped me graduate from unsightly fractured splats on the first batch to acceptable tuile.

4) This recipe is a great candidate for gluten free cookies and further experimentation.

5) Meat grinders look silly with tuiles draped over them.



If you want to see more Tuiles check out the Daring Bakers Blogroll for hundreds of tuile posts worldwide.