Almond Tuiles

Directions

1. 1
   Put the cream and butter in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat until the butter melts.
2. 2
   Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.
3. 3
   Put the almonds, sugar, flour and zest in a medium bowl and stir to mix thouroughly with a rubber spatula.
4. 4
   add warm cream mixture and stir with spatula until batter is smooth.
5. 5
   Cover the batter with plastic wrap and refrigerate until THOROUGHLY chilled and thickened- preferably overnight.
6. 6
   The batter can be made ahead and refrigerated, wrapped airtight, for 4 days.
7. 7
   Baking the Tuiles: Preheat the over to 325 degrees and place your oven rack in the middle or lower third of the oven.
8. 8
   You will need a rolling pin, wine bottle or some other cylindrical object to form the tuiles.
9. 9
   They can also be formed over the bottom of a cup to make a container for mousse or berries etc.
10. 10
    Stir the chilled batter to remix.
11. 11
    Drop batter onto a parchment or silpat lined sheetpan, allowing 1 teaspoon of batter for each tuile.
12. 12
    Leave 2 inches between each one.
13. 13
    There is no need to spread out the batter- it will spread itself.
14. 14
    You can make these larger if you want, but will have to adjust baking times accordingly.
15. 15
    Bake the tuiles for 5-8 minutes until they spread and turn honey brown.
16. 16
    DO NOT LEAVE THE KITCHEN- the tuiles will go from almost done to overdone in a very short time.
17. 17
    Remove sheetpan and allow to cool for about 30 seconds.
18. 18
    Forming the Tuiles: slide the tuiles back and forth with your fingers or a spatula to release them.
19. 19
    Pick them up one by one and lay on the rolling pin.
20. 20
    Press lightly on the tuile with your hand to get a nice curved shape.
21. 21
    The cookies will mold and cool in a few seconds, so you should remove the shaped cookies as soon as you need room on the rolling pin for more.
22. 22
    If the tuiles become cool and hard to remove from the sheetpan, put them back in the oven for 1 minute and then continue.
23. 23
    Repeat with the rest of the batter making sure that the sheetpans cool between batches.
24. 24
    Decorating the tuiles: Scrape the melted chocolate into a parchment cone or plastic zip-lock bag.
25. 25
    Snip the end making a tiny hole and pipe very thin lines across the tuiles.
26. 26
    You can also use a fork dipped into the chocolate and then waved back and forth over the tuiles.
27. 27
    Serve as soon as the chocolate sets.