Wild Yeast

Notes from my kitchen, in which I bake bread and raise a few other matters

When Asbestos Fingers Would Come In Handy

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savory-tuiles-with-crab-sal.jpg

First off, here’s the requisite fine print, so I don’t get kicked off the Daring Bakers’ books, especially after failing to do last month’s challenge:

“This month’s challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.” The challenge also ordered us to pair the tuiles with “something light,” leaving the whole thing well open to creativity and interpretation.

Now I realize there may be a few questions at this point:

    1. Karen and Zorra are bread bakers extraordinaire. Why didn’t they pick a bread recipe?
      • Karen and Zorra are complex women of many talents. We should all be so gifted.
    2. What’s that stuff on top?
      • Crab salsa.
    3. You put crab salsa on top of a cookie. What have you been smoking?
      • Actually, we had a secret savory option as well: cornets from Thomas Keller’s French Laundry Cookbook.

  1. Those don’t look like cornets.
    • That’s not a question. But if you must know, cornet molds are not something I have occasion to keep around.
  2. That doesn’t look like crab salsa, it looks like––
    • Don’t be mean.
  3. Did you cheat and buy Pringles instead?
    • No, but thank you for asking. I think.
  4. The recipe only has six ingredients. How hard can it be?
    • What a coincidence, those were my words exactly! My famous. Last. Words.
  5. How’s that?
    • Have you ever tried using your bare fingers to pick up piping-hot, butter-drenched wafers so you can drape them over a rolling pin?
  6. Will you do these again?
    • Definitely, for a special occasion. Like my 100th wedding anniversary. (How clever of Mother Nature to have wired our pain memory to fade. Otherwise no one would ever have second child, and no one would make tuiles more than once.)
  7. What a wimp.
    • Guilty as charged.

Seriously, I want to thank Karen and Zorra for helping us understand that Daring is not always about fourteen different recipe components. And kudos to all the other Daring Bakers who are much less wimpy than me.

P.S. The crab salsa consisted of crab meat, lime juice, red onion, jalapeño, cilantro, tangerine zest, and fresh ground pepper, in proportions that seemed right to my taste buds.

CommentsLeave a comment

  2. Haha..thank you. I’m afraid we created an amazing number of perfect fingerprint-less potential criminals, maybe we should invent our own BSI (bake-scene investigation) first episode: who stole that last tuile?

    Crab salsa…oh yum!

  5. haha, you’re so funny! I love your post and even though I do have cornet molds and I don’t eat crab, you make me want to bake these again your savory-way! And btw, you next time you bake tuiles, I mean for your 100th wedding anniversary, use a table cloth to press the tuile on the rolling pin so you don’t burn your fingers (although, you’ll end up with a very dirty and greasy table cloth but who cares !!)

  6. I love your Q&A, Susan! Your tuiles look lovely. I should have let mine get more brown. I’m definitely guilty of the “how hard could it be” mentality this month… =)

  7. Susan, this was a really funny post. I’m still smiling! The crab salad is to die for. I just don’t know how you can run a kitchen without cornet molds. I’ve use mine once every 47 years or so.

  9. Oh, Susan, I am chuckling right out loud. Your experience, and the way in which you relayed it, is outrageously funny. No, I am NOT laughing at your expense, but laughing (hopefully), with you.
    You’re such a good sport. I can only imagine those burnt fingertips though..OUCH!

  10. Too funny! I tried to make the cornet shape without a mold…didnt work 🙂 These look great and the crab salsa sounds delicious!

  12. Oh sweetie, your post is just AWESOME. I love it. Your tuiles/crab salsa are gorgeous, just fyi. So despite your pains to make the challenge, I think it was a huge success. Thanks for the chuckle, you are so clever 🙂

  14. ha! i burned my fingers too — but they look so pretty, i’ll definitely make them again. i did a sweet version for these, but when i got the french laundry cookbook, i was bummed that i had to somehow get my hand on coronet molds to create his pretty cones! they should come with the book, seriously.

  15. I love your version! The crab salad looks really yummy. Let me know when the 100th anniversary is and I will be there with some bubbly. (As long as there is crab salsa on tuiles)

  19. This reminds me of the time I decided to touch hot caramel. Yep… I’m not very smart.

    Your tuiles are really pretty.

    I just took a look at a bunch of other daring bakers sites and it always shocks me how different everyone’s interpretation of the same food is. All the tuiles are gorgeous!

  21. You are too funny. I gotta admit I read about this challenge and thought “Oy but that must hurt!”

    I just realized now that I have moved and have 2 ovens and 2 counters, etc I really have no excuse to keep avoiding the Daring Bakers….

  22. Susan, you would think that with that brick oven in the back yard and as many loaves of bread you handle that you already had asbestos fingers 😉

    You just crack me up….

    and I can’t wait to try the crab salsa on “pringles” 😉

    Seriously though, great job on your challenge and I think your tuiles look lovely.

  26. Yes, I agree about touching the hot tuiles to shape them…mental note to self, cotton gloves for the next time.

    Your tuiles look marvelous and what a wonderful appetizer for company!

  27. Hilarious!

    Not a bad idea pairing crab with Keller’s recipe… great minds think alike! (I’m just not as humorous).

  30. I still think your tuiles look lovely and I know they’re not Pringles!
    I also know that the easiest looking recipes can sometimes drive you up the wall!!
    And 100th wedding anniversary? Oh yes, I’m in absolute agreement with you there.:)

  31. heehee..i’m just like you! i kept wincing, not to mention the jumping up and down blowing on my pour fingers trying to make my cookies take shape!! =P your “pringles” are absolutely lovely!! -kk

  32. What a funny post! I did almost the same as you, and loved the results. Also found shaping the tuiles a bit of a challenge when they were just out of the oven.. all that hot butter!

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