- Prep Time: 3 min.
- Cook Time: 10 min.
- Yield: About 8 tuile doilies
Festive times require festive measures! Perhaps in times when we are isolated, we can uplift spirits by enjoying creative time in the kitchen. Beautiful, edible tuile lace garnishes are particularly cheerful during holidays and special occasions.
Here’s my easy spin on my yiayia’s crocheted lace doilies, which I interpreted as edible embellishments for desserts and even savoury dishes.
These coral lace doilies are in no way close to the intricate, totally symmetrical, precise designs that you see on elite bakers’ cakes, but rather more of Jackson Pollack-style free-form abstractions!
To mingle flavours with the sugar or salt, try different fruit powders, such as banana, mangosteen, or pineapple, and substitute the salt for celery, truffle, or bacon to adorn savoury dishes.
Squid ink is among my favourites to add to create tuile lace garnishes for pan-seared white fish such as black cod, halibut, and marlin. Enjoy!
You will need two vessels: one tall cylindrical container, such as a milkshake glass, and one medium-sized, nonstick sauté pan. You will also require a digital balance, for which a kitchen scale will do, as long as it calibrates to 0.01 or at least 0.1 ounces.
Ingredients
- 1/3 ounce all-purpose flour
- 2 ounces of water, room temperature
- 2 ounces of sunflower oil
- pinch of salt or sugar
- 2-4 drops of color from beet, squid ink, spinach, pomegranate, etc.
Instructions
- Mix all the ingredients together in the cylinder with a hand emersion blender. Adjust the color intensity to your liking. Some colors will intensify upon cooking, while others will fade, so experiment and have fun. If using multiple colors or flavors, divide the blended batter into small bowls before adding either.
- Over medium heat, warm a dry sauté pan. When the pan is hot, add a heavy tablespoon to the middle of the pan.
- The liquid will disperse and begin to bubble. Do not stir, tilt, or otherwise disturb the batter. When bubbling stops, gently remove the lace tuile with a spatula or icing spreader. Dry on paper towels.
Wipe the pan dry with a paper towel and proceed with the second doily. Repeat until all the lace doilies are cooked. Do not stack the pieces as they cool. - For more free-form coral, which is an entire departure from somewhat symetrical tuile, pour the batter into a kitchen squeeze bottle and squirt it into the hot pan to form whatever shapes are desired.
- These decorative tuile lace doilies, or corals as some refer to them, are ideal for adorning puddings and custards, simple scoops of ice cream or gelato, a tranche of duck mousse, any number of beverages (I’m imagining milk shakes), a vegetable terrine, or anything that can be imagined.
- Please see my related parmigiano cheese crisps for related savory garnishes.
