cookie calendar - day 5: tuiles d'amandes

Selina and I connected on Twitter over a photo of gon chow ngau ho (dry stir-fry beef flat rice noodles) and we've been Twitter pals ever since. We have so much in common (besides our love of food) and she's one of the nicest people I've met since I started food blogging.

Even though she's not a food blogger, Selina bakes A LOT and the things that come out of her oven usually have me drooling over Instagram so I was happy when she agreed to share one of her favourite cookie recipes with me. We both agree that we can never be neighbours or else we would both get fat from all the sharing of baked goods!

You can connect with Selina on Twitter @selinahuihoong

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One of the best things that happened to me on Twitter was meeting Stephanie @kitchenfrolic.  We are at opposite ends of the world and yet we just connected, probably from our love of food! She's so much fun and I loved her recipes and her blog. It's such an honour when she asked me to write a cookie recipe guest post so I agreed from the get go! However,  be warned that I am not a food blogger and and this is very much my virgin attempt!!

I have been baking for probably 15 years, ever since I was in pharmacy school. I lived in a hall of residence so I was always giving out all my baked goods to my flatmates. That tradition continued until now where I am always giving out baked goods to my colleagues in the hospital. Everytime my colleagues see me with a container in hand, they would ask me 'oooooh baked goodies??!!'

On my 21^st birthday, my flatmate got me (surprise surprise!) a cookie recipe book. Needless to say, I loved it!! I spent many happy days browsing through the book and have baked many recipes off this book and many, many years later I am still baking from this book.

One of my favourite recipes from this book is Tuiles D' Amandes – which were named after the French roof tiles they so resemble. The book did warn that making them is a little fiddly but I have to add that once you get the hang out of them, they are a whole lot of fun to make (and eat!!).

The recipe requires very basic ingredients – things that I always seem to have lying around in the house. Mixing the batter is easey-peasy, the only fiddly part of this cookie is shaping them into tuiles. One has got to be fast as the cookie does seem to cool quite rapidly upon exiting the oven and when they have cooled down, shaping them is a a pain as they tend to crack. However, should that happens, all is not lost as you can return them to the hot oven for 15-30 seconds and then take them out and they are pliable to shape again.

tuiles d'amandes
source: adapted from Fabulous Cookies by Hilaire Walden
printer-friendly version

ingredients:

generous 1/2 cup whole blanched almonds, lightly toasted

1/3 cup caster sugar

3 tablespoon unsalted butter (I always use Lurpak to bake!)

2 egg whites

1/2 teaspoon almond essence (I sometimes use vanilla extract)

1/4 cup plain flour

1/2 cup flaked almonds

directions:

1.     Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celcius or 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

2.     Place the almonds and about 2 tablespoon of the sugar in a food processor fitted with a metal blade and process until finely ground.

3.     Beat the butter until creamy, then add the remaining sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the egg whites, then add the almond essence/vanilla extract. Sift the flour over the butter mixture, fold in, and then fold in the ground almond mixtures.

4.     Generously butter baking sheet or alternatively use a silicon baking sheet eg Silpat. I have always used a silicon baking sheet and have had no trouble with the cookies sticking. Another alternative is line the baking sheet with baking parchment.

5.     Drop tablespoonfuls of the mixture on to the baking sheets with a couple of inches apart from each other. With the back of a wet spoon, spread each mound into paper-thin rounds, maybe about 3 inches diameter. Don't worry if holes appear, they will fill in as they bake. Sprinkle with flaked almonds. 

6.     Bake the cookies for about 5-6 minutes until the edges are golden and the centres still pale. Working quickly, use a thin palette knife to loosen the edges of the cookie.

7.     Lift the cookie on the knife and place over a rolling pin and press down the sides of the cookie to curve it. Or you can do what I do, I put the cookie curved in a clear glass and let it cool. I find this way easier. 

8.     Continue shaping the cookies, transferring them to a wire rack as they cool.

9.     Enjoy!

I love these cookies with a scoop of good vanilla ice-cream. Or even eaten just as it is with a mug of hot coffee or tea. There will be some inevitable shattered or cracked cookies in the process – do not be sad, those bits are awesome crumbled into some ice-cream and maybe a generous squirt of chocolate sauce.

Unfortunately, I can't tell you how long these cookies keep as they are usually gone by the second day in my house!!

Thank you again Stephanie for allowing me to share on your blog. Any questions or if you want to follow my eating / baking adventures, I am on twitter @selinahuihoong

Happy holidays!!

The recipe and all photos used in this blog post belong to Selina and should not be reprinted without her express permission.