Tuiles, an adventure in finger burning - January Daring Baker Challenge

First let's get the important info out of the way...

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 :

What we would like you to do is:

- use one of the batters given,
- shape it either prior (using a stencil) or right after baking and
- pair it with something light; fruit, sorbet, a mousse, or maybe even a fruit soup, think glazes or dips…..

Bend it, shape it, anyway you want it!

Ingredients :


1/4 cup softened butter
1/2 cup icing sugar
Few drops of vanilla extract
2 egg whites
1/2 cup flour

Method :

01. Seperate the eggs.


02. Put butter, icing sugar and vanilla in a bowl.


03. Beat until a smooth paste.

04. Beat in the eggs whites slowly.

05. Slowly beat in the flour until you have a smooth paste.

06. Refridgerate for a half hour.

07. Cut out some stencils from cardboard, use precut stencils or use free hand to shape tuiles.

08. Spread the batter about 2 mm thick.

09. Take this picture as a warning, these tuiles were too well done to shape!

10. Bake the tuiles at 180 degrees Celsius until just browning at the edges.

11. Shape the tuiles when straight out of the oven.

Serving :

I served my spoons and hearts with a ball of peanut butter, or Nutella.

Pointless Soup

Pointless soup?! Well only in the Weight Watchers sense :) This soup has no points and makes a great filler for no cost to my diet. :D

Ingredients :


2 beef stock cubes
1 litre water
1 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp parsley
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
2 carrots
2 large slices turnip
2 heads baby cauliflower
2 heads baby broccoli

Method :

01. Chop and weigh out all ingredients.


02. Fry the onion on a medium heat until softened. (fried in spray oil)


03. Add garlic and fry for 1 min.


04. Add in rest of chopped veg and fry for 1 min.


05. Add in spices, herbs, salt and pepper.


06. Add in stock.


07. Simmer for 20 mins, until vegetables have softened.

08. Serve piping hot, with some brown bread.



Variations :

This is just a base soup really, you can use different stocks, different vegetables, add meat or noodles for a more substantial meal, some crunchy croutons for a bit of bite, some cream for a richer taste, or even just blend it for a smooth soup.

Chicken Fried Rice

My favourite meal from the Chinese takeaway has always been fried rice, and with the new year comes new me, and new diet :) So I present a tasty, and significantly lower fat version of fried rice that you can make at home in less time than it takes for a delivery!

Ingredients :


1 cup rice (cooked the day before in 2 cups water)
2 eggs
5 mushrooms
3 cloves garlic
2 spring onions
2 chicken breasts
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp herbs

Method :

01. Chop chicken into bite size pieces and fry in a wok.



02. Chop spring onion, garlic and mushrooms.


03. Add these and the herbs and curry to the chicken. Stir and cook until mushrooms starting to soften.



04. Add rice and soy sauce, stir all together.



05. Make a well in the centre.


06. Add in egg, stir together and cook until egg is cooked through.


07. Serve immediately.


Delicious on it's own or with stir fried vegetables. Can be made easily without the chicken and served as a side dish, or with any other meat :D

Mince Pies finally get a look in...

Can't believe I almost forgot to finish off the Mince Pies... And here's how...

Method :

01. Roll 2/3 of the pastry out to about 1/2 cm.


02. Cut discs and place in a bun tin.


03. Fill with 2 tsp mincemeat.


04. Roll the remaining 1/3 pastry to 1/2 cm thick and top the mince pies.


05. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 20 mins.


Serve hot with ice cream or cold with custard.