Tuile-type Cookies
The name 'tuile' is a french word meaning 'tile,' and when presented in rows are supposed to resemble the curved tiles on the tops of buildings. In their traditional form, a tuile (petit four style cookie) is a flat cookie which has been set over a curved surface while freshly baked and allowed to cool, giving its characteristic curved-tile shape.
These cookies are fragile and crisp, and should be made the same day they are to be served, especially in humid climates. Storage of them should be airtight, and if not used the same day, should be used within a couple of days, as the main feature of a tuile is that it's dry and crisp. Care should be taken as to how they are arranged either in a storage container or a covered plate since they are so fragile.
A common batter is mixing egg whites with powdered sugar and melted butter with the addition of flours like all purpose or ground nuts. Some others contain only cream in place of the whites. Some recipes have a garnish to them, like chopped nuts, grated zests or chopped citron. While tuile cookies are generally made with the above ingredients, and using just about any flavor like chocolate (cocoa), citrus zests, or chopped or sliced nuts to flavor and complement, some cooks classify lace cookies in the tuile category since they are flat, fragile, and can be molded when hot into the traditional curved shape.
While the traditional shape is popular as petit fours, you can find tuiles not only flat, but in any shape you can imagine for all applications for pastry plate and buffet design.
Tuile and Related Cookie Info:
- Traditional Tuile Cookies
- Cigarette cookies are thin cookies baked into a round shape (round templates are helpful with these) and rolled around a thin wooden stick while they are warm and set up that way.
- Wafer cookies are crisp, often sweet, very thin, flat, and dry biscuits, often used to decorate ice cream. Wafers can also be made into cookies with cream flavoring sandwiched between them. They frequently have a waffle surface pattern but may also be patterned with insignia of the food's manufacturer or may be patternless. Many chocolate bars, such as Kit Kat and Coffee Crisp, have wafers in them.
Pizzelles (Italian Wafer Cookies) - made on a pizzelle iron
Walnut Rum Wafers - Lace cookies are simple cookies that spread during baking to a very thin height with a slight lace-work pattern, and when removed from the oven can be shaped to any surface. These are very fragile. If you see a recipe with 'dentelle' in the name of a tuile cookie, it simply means 'lace' in French and the resulting tuile cookie will probably spread to form a slightly open lace-work pattern, thus the name.
- Snaps or Glass cookies are very thin, almost transparent cookies, that can also be shaped when pulled from the oven. Take care with some of the very thin cookies as some may need to set for several seconds to 'set up' or they can be pulled and distorted out of shape, and some cookies will harden almost immediately when pulled from the oven.
Ginger Glass Cookies
Orange Glass Cookies - Tulipe batter (French for 'tulip' - formed into a basket) or tulip paste is sometimes coined for cigarette or similar batter when used for making 'tulips' or baskets for plated desserts, which are molded over or inside of timbales, small bowls or similar molds when warm.
- Hippenmasse or Hippen paste is a German thin wafer cookie similar to a plain tuile or tulip paste, where you pipe out the batter in designs or spread the batter over a template and bake and form as required.
- Fortune cookies, tasty Chinese-American wafer cookies with a piece of paper inside with a “fortune” written on it, are a tuile made from a batter and formed while hot, giving their unique folded shape.
With all recipes, always test a few to see how they can be molded and how much time you'll have to work with to mold them. Also, if you baked too many on the sheet pan to mold and some cookies are hard before you get to mold them, simply place the pan back into the oven for several seconds to warm up, then form as usual.
