ffwd – orange almond tuiles

I got a bit of a late start on these this week, and have been interrupted by a couple of circumstances in get my post done.

These cookies are easy enough to put together. I was surprised that it was only orange juice for the orange flavor, I was completely expecting to get out my well-loved microplane grater. I had a momentary thought of adding some zest anyway, but as usual, I really wanted to try the recipe “as-is”. The real logistical challenge was due to the required refrigeration time. That meant that I’d be baking a few cookies before heading off to work on Friday!

Now, Dorie says that we don’t need to grease the pan or use parchment, but I’ve become enamored of using parchment, and given the fact that I’d seen snippets of horror stories about these cookies, I decided I’d just go that way anyway. The dough gets formed into small balls with plenty of space between, then baked for about 10 minutes. I set the timer, just didn’t turn it on…

I’m guessing that I mis-estimated the time that I baked these, because I don’t know that they baked quite enough. In any event, once they are out of the of the oven, the cookies get a few seconds rest, and then formed over a rolling pin or empty wine bottle. I split my parchment so that I could simply lift cookies, still on parchment to the form. I ended up trying that with the rolling pin, and then lifting the others off of the parchment and placing on the wine bottle.

They did split a little, and I didn’t think that they were quite as crisp and delicate as they should have been. Maybe the dough, but also the length (and temperature?) of baking.

So, they easily came off of the parchment, both as I was transferring them when hot to the bottle/form, as well as when I removed them from the parchment once cooled on the rolling pin. The ones directly on the wine bottle stuck a little as I tried to remove them.

These were quite tasty, and had a surprisingly orange-y flavor. I thought that they might not have enough orange, but it turned out to be definitely recognizable. They did lose their shape a bit when transported, but they were still pretty. I will bake the rest of the dough on Sunday, so we’ll see how those turn out with a more-precise cooking time. (and maybe a temperature tweak) But these were elegant and quite nice. Not sure that they need the curl, but it worked!!