Last month Sheldon broke in his new kitchen with a batch of almond tuiles, a crisp, wafer-like cookie made with almond flour. They looked beautiful and since I had some extra almond flour left over from the macarons, this seemed like a good opportunity to use it.
The tuiles (pronounced “tweel” – I had to double-check this as my French has all but been replaced by Thai) are basically a mixture of almond flour, all-purpose flour, sugar and salt, moistened with egg whites and melted butter. They are spread very thin on parchment paper and then baked.
The name “tuiles” comes from the French word for “tile”, so these cookies are means to be shaped similarly to the terra cotta tiles you might find on the roof of a home in the French countryside.
To do this, you have to slide them off the baking sheet while piping hot and, working quickly, drape them over a curved object like a rolling pin. Even with only six on a tray, by the time you are pulling the third one off it is already beginning to cool and stiffen.
Frankly, I’m inclined to follow Sheldon’s lead and not curl them as they taste just as lovely flat and they store better.
One challenge I encountered with the recipe was that it calls for 1/2 cup of almonds, ground. This is not, I imagine, the same as 1/2 cup of ground almonds. Since my almond flour is already ground, measuring 1/2 cup of it may have been too much. But I didn’t want to tamper with the recipe until I had tried it once.
The cookies turned out a little chewier and “cakier” than I think they are supposed to be, which leads me to suspect that “1/2 cup of almonds, ground” must measure out to less than 1/2 cup of ground almonds.
I still have plenty of almond flour, though, and these were pretty easy to make. I do need to get a metal spatula, though, as the plastic one seems to be an attractive surface for macarons and tuiles to stick to as I try to remove them from the tray.
christao408 
In my semi-professional opinion, those are absolutely perfect! I’ve been noticing something similar popping up again in the Vietnamese French bakeries in Orange County. I believe it’s a macaron large, flat round base with almond slices on top. Do you know what I’m talking about?
They look beautiful! I especially like that last shot of them draped on the rolling pin. I think that mine turned out a bit cakier too.
Is there a reason that they are rolled like that?
Nice that the almonds are still sticking to the ‘curled’ cookies!!
@minhaners – Haven’t seen them but are they just the original macarons, which weren’t made into sandwiches? Thanks for giving your semi-professional opinion, which actually DOES mean a lot to me.@brooklyn2028 – Perhaps cakier is the way they are meant to be? I don’t know. Plus, with the humidity here even storing them in an airtight container only keeps them crisp for a while.@TheCheshireGrins – So they look like the roof tiles – tuiles – they are named for.@curry69curry – And I didn’t expect that they would do that. I thought they would stick out every which way.
OMG *mouth watering* I want I want!!! =D
I love ANYTHING almond so I am sure I would love those. I hope you ate them quickly…the humidity there in Thailand wouldn’t be kind to them. I may have to try to make those sometime…but I bet mine will be FLAT tiles!!! lolRuth Ann
By the way…you have a dinner invitation when you come to Kansas City. My daughter, her husband and our ADORABLE grandson want to join us…and you for dinner one evening…if you have time we would love to have the chance to meet and visit with you!! Ruth Ann
Chris they look good. I am going to try them. I have some marzipan almond paste in a roll, I think I will see if they turn out as well as yours have done.
@ZSA_MD – Hmm… I wonder how marzipan will work. Let me know.@Redlegsix – Thank you for the very kind offer. I’m still putting the details together for the trip back to KC and will certainly keep that in mind. Let me know, too, about the fried rice seasoning packets and I’ll look for those.@zozoyork – They were really addictive.
I was going to make this once, but I realized I didn’t have any cylinders to roll them up in
@Wangium – Wine bottles?
You can only lay one or two on a wine bottle and I am not a light eater nor a heavy drinker…
yummy! entertaining post!