# Carrot Tuiles



## chrislehrer (Oct 9, 2008)

I tried making carrot tuiles, based on a recipe by Charlie Trotter in his long-out-of-print _Gourmet Cooking for Dummies_, and it didn't work at all.

Basically you just dice carrots, boil them until very tender, strain and puree, work the mix through a sieve or tamis, and then spread it on a Silpat in rounds. Bake at 275 for 35-40 minutes, and it's supposed to come out crisp and orange.

I did this, and found that (a) the orange part is more like fruit leather than anything remotely crunchy, (b) the crunchy part is brown and doesn't taste much like carrot, and (c) contrary to my total prior experience, the things stick like h**l to the Silpat.

Somehow I doubt Trotter is full of it, but there's something missing here. Any ideas?


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## chefross (May 5, 2010)

Like many of the celebrity cookbooks out there, the techniques have been practiced many times to get it right.

It is very common to not get the final product to come out cookbook perfect the first time.

Keep trying to perfect the recipe. Practice, makes perfect.


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## chrislehrer (Oct 9, 2008)

Well, thanks anyway Ross, but here we have a recipe that has almost no explicit technique whatsoever, and that produces no results resembling what's described. I'm not a newcomer to the kitchen, you know. If there is a technique I'm missing, perhaps you'd let me know what it is?


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## boar_d_laze (Feb 13, 2008)

Chris,

Looks like Charlie not only got the original purchaser, but you too -- and with the same bullet too.

_Gourmet Cooking for Dummies_ is notorious for recipes which simply don't work and seemingly were never actually tried or tested. It's right up there with Bourdain's _Les Halles_ cookbook.

BDL


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## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

> Originally Posted by *boar_d_laze*
> 
> _Gourmet Cooking for Dummies_ is notorious for recipes which simply don't work and seemingly were never actually tried or tested. It's right up there with Bourdain's _Les Halles_ cookbook.


That sucks. Then again that explains why my first crab cakes (recipe from Gourmet Cooking for Dummies) were so disastrous. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif


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## kyheirloomer (Feb 1, 2007)

Trotter may be a great cook. But his recipes don't seem to translate to the printed page.

I haven't read the _Dummies_ book. But his _Home Cooking with Charlie Trotter _suffers from the same problem. Many of the recipes, as presented, just don't work. And no amount of practice is going to get them to do so.


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## chrislehrer (Oct 9, 2008)

Well, that explains it.

Any ideas on how in fact to make carrot tuiles? The idea is very good, and it strikes me that it really _ought_ to work, but clearly it's not as simple as this recipe makes it out to be.

My basic feeling, looking at the results here, was that it needed some sort of binder. Parmesan tuiles work because the cheese melts and sticks together, and with fiddling you can make almost any sort of cheese do it too, the usual problem being that most cheeses have far too much liquid and will tend to weep butter. Potato tuiles or pancakes work because of all that starch, although sometimes you add a little egg to help with the binding. Carrots normally aren't all that starchy to begin with, and I'd be afraid that in this application egg would significantly distract from the pure flavor, as well as acting strangely when baked on a mat like this, though I could be quite wrong about that.

I suppose I could add some pure starch --- potato starch, for instance --- during the puree phase, but there would be some danger of getting a gluey mess.

Anyone ever made tuiles like this successfully?


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## bazza (Apr 2, 2007)

I have never done carrot tuiles but I imagine you would need some flour, butter and egg whites in there, usually equal quantities of each. To get the carrot flavour I would add finely grated carrot and a little sugar. It's worth messing around with, sounds interesting. Alternatively you could do carrot crisps which are much simpler, shave em with a peeler and deep fry them, they are very tasty.


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## chrislehrer (Oct 9, 2008)

Hmm. The idea here is savory tuiles, like Parmesan tuiles --- the ones you make by making circular piles of fresh-grated Parmesan on a Silpat and baking them. Trotter's recipe is garbage, but I'm sure he didn't make up the result he's achieved by some means or other: crisp, bright orange, intensely carrot-flavored tuiles.

Flour I can see, though I'd have thought a pure starch would bind better. Or are you thinking that the flour should be worked in enough to develop gluten?

Butter worries me a little. Wouldn't that tend to encourage it to toast very brown, like any fat? What does butter add to the mix here?

Egg white --- hmm. Somehow I can't decide whether that strikes me as a very good or a very bad idea in this particular application. Something tells me that this approach will produce carrot-flavored cookies, where the idea is something as close as possible to 100% carrot --- which, of course, doesn't apparently work, or not quite this way.

Sugar --- yes, probably a good idea, especially if the carrots aren't absolutely the best.

It occurs to me that the starch in carrots must be getting washed away in the boiling process. Perhaps steaming them for a long time would keep the starch in and they'd bind better?


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

I think moisture is your enemy. I'm thinking you might be better served with a carrot flour for lack of a better term. Steam them, puree, spread thin, dehydrate in a low oven or dehydrator. Grind finely in a food processor/CLEAN coffee grinder.  Now work them into a batter/paste that will perform the crisping you're looking for.

Or just grind up freeze dried carrots. I can give you a source if you want.

Maybe based in a bland cheese to give the form and crisping?

I'm not a good enough cook to be more detailed than that general idea.


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## bazza (Apr 2, 2007)

ChrisLehrer said:


> Hmm. The idea here is savory tuiles, like Parmesan tuiles --- the ones you make by making circular piles of fresh-grated Parmesan on a Silpat and baking them.


This to my mind is not a tuile, it is simply melted cheese, we make them all the time at work and call them parmesan crisps. A tuile is a very thin cookie or biscuit that is shaped over a curved surface while stiil warm to resemble a roof tile, in fact the French translation of tuile is tile. It does not have to be sweet, it just depends on the flavours you want to put into it. A basic tuile recipe has equal quantities of egg white, flour and butter to form a thick batter and I was taught that you must have at least some sugar in there. There are many different recipes for tuiles but the challenge is going to be getting the carrot flavour and colour

How did you spread the mixture on to the silicone sheet? It is very impotant to get it as thin as possible and evenly spread. The best way is to make a stencil from a plasic lid or something similar and spead it on with a spatula. They should cook in a few minutes, 30-40 minutes seems far too long and suggests that they may be too thick.

I will come back to you on this, it is intriguing me. I will ask around and try something out at work over the weekend.


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## petemccracken (Sep 18, 2008)

FWIW, Michael Ruhlman, in "Ratio:The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking", page 40-41 suggests a ratio of 1:1:1 (egg white:sugar:flour, by WEIGHT) plus flavoring, such as butter, extract(s), etc.


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## chrislehrer (Oct 9, 2008)

I agree with you that this is not a normal tuile at all. I'm using the terminology because (a) it's a tile, and (b) that's what Trotter called it in his cookbook.

As to the spreading, I used an offset spatula and spread them fairly evenly, though the results suggested that on some of them I leaned a little bit. Nevertheless, the reason I know there's something seriously amiss is that no part of any one of them worked properly. It it were just thickness, for example, I should have had at least some parts of some of them come out properly.

The length of cooking time is as suggested in Trotter's recipe, as is the temperature. Yes, it's a bad recipe.

But I too am intrigued. He must have made something like this, and it must have been pretty simple. He and his co-authors just didn't test the actual listed recipe. So it can't be too drastically far off: a missing ingredient, a missing step, these things are possible. But I find it hard to believe he could have completely forgotten to include flour, butter, and sugar!



Bazza said:


> This to my mind is not a tuile, it is simply melted cheese, we make them all the time at work and call them parmesan crisps. A tuile is a very thin cookie or biscuit that is shaped over a curved surface while stiil warm to resemble a roof tile, in fact the French translation of tuile is tile. It does not have to be sweet, it just depends on the flavours you want to put into it. A basic tuile recipe has equal quantities of egg white, flour and butter to form a thick batter and I was taught that you must have at least some sugar in there. There are many different recipes for tuiles but the challenge is going to be getting the carrot flavour and colour
> 
> How did you spread the mixture on to the silicone sheet? It is very impotant to get it as thin as possible and evenly spread. The best way is to make a stencil from a plasic lid or something similar and spead it on with a spatula. They should cook in a few minutes, 30-40 minutes seems far too long and suggests that they may be too thick.
> 
> I will come back to you on this, it is intriguing me. I will ask around and try something out at work over the weekend.


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## bazza (Apr 2, 2007)

I made these today and they worked a treat, the only issue I had was the seasoning, they were a bit bland but the colour and texture were good. Next time more seasoning, if there is a next time.



Firstly I made a carrot puree, returned it to the pan and gently reduced it for about 20 minutes until it became a thick paste. Be careful here and keep stirring it, it burns easily.

Ingredients

100g reduced carrot puree

15g clarified butter

15g plain flour

1 egg white

To season, add salt and ground cumin.

Method

Lightly whisk egg white until frothy

Combine the rest of the ingredients together and then fold in the egg white and seasoning.

Spread the mixture as thinly as possible onto a baking sheet lined with parchment and bake for 20 mins at 100C


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## studentchef (Feb 20, 2012)

I just want to thank you for this recipe. I have been looking for a crunch element to add to a savory beet sorbet and pear sauce and I think this will do just fine. Thanks a lot!!


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## spychalski (May 26, 2012)

try using a butter, corn syrup and flour base. 1 lb flour 3 lb corn syrup and 10 -12 oz flour. Add your carrot past (puree you have cooked as much water out as possible) to your melted butter and corn syrup then add your sifted flour.  Let sit in the fridge for 2 hours then pip small coin shaped dots on a pad and bake at 300.  These tuiles wilt in humidity, so keep in air tight container with silicon pellets. 

They make great cones, miso cones, and golden beet.  I have not tried red beet yet, afraid they will turn brown in the heat of the oven.


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## sergii houghton (Jan 24, 2014)

Hi chef . here to help you

1- never cook them at more than 90c

2- you can add gelatine to help it crisp up

3 - add 10% icing sugar when you blending the purre = 400g of carrots = 40g sugar ( any sugar if carrots r hot )

4- you can use tapioca pearls too ( wery good for veg crisps ) i have never used it with carrots but usd it with Roasted Butternut Squash Tuiles . just use 1 1/2 cups cooked tapioca with 4 Roasted Butternut Squashes. with Tapioca preheat the oven to 200f or 90c = bake for 2 hours to dehydrate the tuiles. Cool to room temperature before removing from paper ,In a large saucepan, heat the oil to 325 F . Working quickly, fry the tuiles, one at a time, for 10 seconds. As you remove each tuile from the oil, immediately roll or shape in any way you like. Drain off the excess oil and allow to cool. The tuiles can be kept in an airtight container for up to 6 hours. or more i am not to sure , when i make them i make Just to last me one cervece . i never keap them after they being fried . what I do is dehydrate the tuiles and then Vac-pack them and fry as and when i need them ,

5- bean Gum can help too.

hope I could help .




  








Veg crisps.jpg




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sergii houghton


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Jan 24, 2014







this is crisps using Tapioca method .


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## sergii houghton (Jan 24, 2014)

Problem with Your recipe  BAZZA is what if you have people with allergy to flour or vegans , ?


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## alycia mcdonald (Apr 12, 2015)

A basic tuile recipe has butter in it, it might help with sticking if nothing else


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