Daring Bakers January '09 Challenge

Touile Cookies

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. I've worked with this batter before when I made fortune cookies, so I was glad to have something familiar (for once). I used a recipe for the Nutella flavored whipped cream that I found on the Cherrapeno blog to fill the touile cookies. These are so crisp and light tasting, and the airy whipped cream was the perfect addition (not too sweet).

Ingredients:
¼ cup softened butter
½ cup sifted confectioner’s sugar
1 and 1/2 tablespoons of sugar mixed with a drop of vanilla extract
2 large egg whites (slightly whisked with a fork)
1/2 cup sifted all purpose flour
1 tablespoon cocoa powder/or food coloring of choice
Butter/spray to grease baking sheet

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F
Using a hand whisk or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (low speed) and cream butter, sugar and vanilla to a paste. Keep stirring while you gradually add the egg whites. Continue to add the flour in small batches and stir to achieve a homogeneous and smooth batter/paste. Be careful to not over mix. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up. (This batter will keep in the fridge for up to a week, take it out 30 minutes before you plan to use it).
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease with either butter/spray and chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. This will help spread the batter more easily if using a stencil/cardboard template such as a butterfly, circle, leaf, etc (I used the circle). Press the stencil on the baking sheet and use an off sided spatula to spread batter. Leave some room in between your shapes. Mix a small part of the batter with the cocoa and a few drops of warm water until evenly colored. Use this colored batter in a paper piping bag and proceed to pipe decorations on the wings and body of the butterfly.
Bake stenciled batter in a preheated oven (180C/350F) for about 5-10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Immediately release from baking sheet and proceed to shape/bend the cookies in the desired shape. These cookies have to be shaped when still warm, you might want to bake a small amount at a time or maybe put them in the oven to warm them up again. Or: place a baking sheet toward the front of the warm oven, leaving the door half open. The warmth will keep the cookies malleable.
If you don’t want to do stencil shapes, you might want to transfer the batter into a piping bag fitted with a small plain tip. Pipe the desired shapes and bake. Shape immediately after baking using for instance a rolling pin, a broom handle, cups, cones, etc.

Nutella Whipped Cream:
Whip 1 cup heavy whipping cream to soft peaks. Add 3 tablespoons of Nutella and whip until combined. Pipe onto the touile cookies.