Grind and Bake Tuile technique

ANZAC biscuit Tuile; a 'tuile' is technically a thin curved cookie, typically made with almonds & in French literally means 'tile'. However the term is commonly used nowadays to describe any thin cookie that is usually served sticking out of plated desserts.

I was reading Johnny Iuzzini's Dessert Fourplay last night, when he wrote about Graham Crackers saying "I love the flavour of graham crackers, but I have always thought the crackers are too thick. So I grind them, rebind them, and make them thin and very crisp." it struck a chord with me. Now, I don't know what a graham cracker is but I feel exactly the same way about Australia's national biscuit (cookie) the ANZAC. 

I like the oat, coconut and golden syrup flavour of the ANZAC but it's too... ummm, "robust" perhaps, it's the biscuit you take on camping trips.

I'll be making ANZAC's & covering their history for ANZAC day in a few weeks, but for today's playing around with this Johnny Iuzzini's technique I bought Unibic ANZAC biscuits.

Unibic ANZAC biscuits are sold in Australia, the United Kingdom, India, Canada, the United States and New Zealand – with a percentage of total sale proceeds to various war veterans and community support groups. More importantly, the legacy of the ANZAC Spirit is being passed on to new generations of the public.

I popped the biscuits in the food processor and ground them to this stage, added a few whole rolled oats, 1/4 tsp of salt and a tablespoon of golden syrup to make sure the ANZAC flavour wasn't too diluted.

The ground biscuit mix was combined with simple/heavy syrup. I added enough syrup to make a thin batter, I wanted very lacy free form tuiles for cupcake toppers.

I spread the batter thinly in free form shapes & baked them for 20 minutes.

Thinly spread batter baking

Happy with the finished tuiles (you'll see them topping a cupcake some time soon), I'll be definitely using the technique for leftover cookies in the future, I can imagine it working well with hard almond, coconut or oat cookies. Next time I'll use stencils for precision shapes.

Grind and Bake Tuiles, fabulous to serve with ice-cream, plated desserts & as cupcake toppers, but not robust enough to take camping ;)