Cocoa Tuiles - Tuiles Love!

Guilty, guilty of making appearances so sporadic here! Summer vacations are just not my thing. Please say neither is it your favorite time of the year and make me feel better! I don't know if I have had enough of vacations or the kids have had enough of me, but neither of us can wait for school to re-open! Hang on, its just a week away, we keep telling each other!  And then a couple of things more not in my favor.  Out of the few recipes I managed to make in the mayhem, some recipes were not up to my expectations, some needing re-work ( exasperating I know!). Then a couple of good ones I want to share with you but turned out the pictures are terrible! I have never been proud of my photography, very honestly far from it, but this time my camera seems to be really avenging me for something! Thinking I won't have a single thing to post at this rate, am picking out a couple of recipes which I had put on hold for better pictures.  Please bear with me!

Here are some tuiles I had made sometime ago. Some super crisp, really chocolaty ones, they can be as addictive as potato chips, warns Alice Medrich! Great to munch on as is, but can you really resist playing around with these? Embellish them with nuts or drizzle them with some chocolate or use them to pipe in some coffee mascarpone / cream and berries to make desserts out of them.

As with all tuile batters, this is really easy and quick to make. You could make the batter and refrigerate it upto 3 days, make the tuiles in batches at your pace. Make sure you weigh your ingredients correctly as more flour can make your tuiles tough, more cocoa will make them bitter, less of it makes them sweet. I like them slightly sweetish with a bitter edge. I prefer trying out half the recipe first and then double it to suit my taste. 

Ingredients:

Unsalted butter, melted and still very warm - 56 grams approximately / 4 tablespoons (weigh or measure before melting)

Sugar, powdered - 100 grams / 1/2 cup (powdered after weighing)

Natural cocoa ( Nilgiris, Hersheys, Cadbury's) - 1/4 cup / 22 grams approx (sieve after measuring)

Salt - 1/4 teaspoon

Egg whites - 60 grams / 2 large

All purpose flour - 10 grams / 4 teaspoons

Method: Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C / 350 degrees F. Line your baking trays with aluminum foil, smoothing any creases, taking care not to tear it. Grease lightly but very thoroughly with melted butter.

In a small bowl, whisk together the melted butter, sugar, cocoa and salt. Whisk in the egg whites. Add flour and mix only till combined. Let the batter rest for at-least 10 minutes or up to 3 days, covered and refrigerated.

Drop level teaspoons of batter 2 inches apart on the prepared foil. Using the back of a spoon, spread the batter evenly in 3 inch rounds or oval or other shape about 1/16 of an inch.  If using multiple trays, you could spread the batter and keep the trays in the oven one by one. If using the same pan for the next set of tuiles, make sure the pan is cool before you spread the batter.

Bake for 10 to 11 minutes. The time depends on the thickness of the cookies. Watch very carefully,  its tough to tell when they are baked and when they start burning because of the dark color! The edges will be ever so slightly darker says Alice, but it really is not easy to make this out. Rotate pans if using a large oven and multiple sheets. If the cookies are not baked thoroughly, they won't be completely crisp when they cool. A test batch must tell you the approximate baking time. I baked for about 11 minutes.

Remove the cookies sheets or pans from the oven and set them down. Keep your rolling pin / cup right beside the oven if you want to curve them or shape them into cups. You won't have time to turn, go to the table and then shape.You are supposed to slide a very thin metal spatula when the cookie is still hot and soft. Then shape it immediately into a curve or cigar and cool it on a rack. If the cookies harden before you shape, pop them back in the oven for a few seconds, they will soften, you can shape again. I normally let them cool and harden, then peel the foil from underneath the tuiles very gently taking care not to break the tuiles. After baking all of the cookies, I put one cookie at a time in the oven (the underside of the cookie facing up, so that when you pick up the cookie and shape it into a cone, you have the right side facing outward) on the sheet for 30-40 seconds till they became very soft and flexible. Then shaped them. They harden very very quickly as in a matter of 4-5 seconds, so its really important that you work very quickly.

With basic tuiles, coconut wafers and cocoa tuiles done (and loved much), you don't need to fear more tuiles appearing here...at least for some time!