Can I make giant tuiles?

[Diana]

I want to make two big tuiles as fancy dessrt/chocolate holding bols this weekedn. Do you guys think I can make a basic racipe and just make big disks and drape them over, say, a brioche pan?

[MikeG]

Have you ever made them at all, before? Small ones take practice to mold or shape, a big one is going to be, shall we say, interesting. Keep the brioche pan warm, the room as warm as you can, and be prepared to move very quickly. I'd make a double batch of batter, you can expect a few misbegotten free-form shapes before you get it right unless you're very good or very lucky. ;)

Do keep in mind they aren't very strong -- small ones have the advantage of small area to support - and probably won't hold much weight in a large size.

[Diana]

Thanks for the tips. I will make a double batch of batter, and warm my form first. It gets warm on the toip of my oven when I'm using it, so I'll sit it there.

I won't put too much in it, or load it with heavy stuff. I was thinking of perhaps a dollop of pumpkin quark and some whipped cream with chocolate shavings. Or maybe a small pile of meringues.

I know tuiles are thin..do you think any cookie batter could be baked into a big bowl shape?

[MikeG]

Apart from occasional almost-experiments with specific recipes for things like tuiles, my cookie knowledge is pretty pedestrian, the only thing that really comes to mind is a crisp-type sugar cookie dough rolled or pressed thin. Or maybe even a sweet pastry dough, rolled very thin? I don't know if either would be close enough to what you have in mind, though.

But since you mention a "dollop" of quark, maybe I was thinking you meant something larger than you did? If you mean little individual brioche molds, that shouldn't be a big problem apart from still having to move fast to get all the bending done before the tuile sets up. Molding them against the simpler bottoms of a muffin pan was too tedious for me to eagerly repeat, but that size worked with no special problems apart from the misshapen mistakes.

[carignane]

sounds like a plan, and no need to use nuts!

i'd just make sure the tuile is large enough that you can sort of pleat the sides while shaping, to reinforce them....

also, after cutting the tuile shape, instead of lifting it, i think i'd place the bowl on the tuile then flip the parchment paper and bowl over together, then peel off the parchment...

[Diana]

thanks!

[Diana]

also, do they have to have nuts in them, or will the work just as well but free?