My dad has a thing for coconut sweets.
He even buys Almond Joy to give out at Halloween, knowing that the rest of us won’t eat them.
So when he found this recipe for coconut tuiles, a sort of curved macaroon-like cookie, in an old issue of Gourmet (May 1986) he was all over it.
When we begged him to make them again because they were oh so good the first time, no problem. Done. Yay!
Tuile are so named because they resemble curve roofing tiles, tuile being the French word for tile. Dad also pulled up another reference to the word in his abridged OED, tuille being a steel plate used in medieval armor for protecting the thigh. Different spelling, same root, same curved flat shape.
Coconut Tuiles Recipe
- Prep time: 30 minutes
- Cook time: 9 minutes
- Yield: Makes 2 to 3 dozen
Recipe from Gourmet Magazine, May 1986.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup (1/2 a stick) of unsalted butter, softened (see how to soften butter quickly)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 large egg whites, lightly beaten
- 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
- 2 cups sweetened shredded coconut, toasted lightly, divided
Method
1 Preheat oven to 400°F.
2 Beat butter, sugar, then beat in eggs: Using an electric mixer, beat the butter. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg whites a little at a time, beating slowly after each addition. Beat for 5 seconds or until the mixture is smooth.
3 Add flour and coconut: Sprinkle flour over the mixture and fold it in gently with 1 1/2 cups of the coconut.
4 Spoon onto baking sheets, sprinkle with coconut: Spoon rounded teaspoons of the mixture 3 inches apart on to baking sheets that have been greased or using Silpat.
With the remaining 1/2 cup coconut, sprinkle a little over the center of each round.
5 Bake: Bake the rounds at 400°F on the middle rack of the oven for 6 to 9 minutes, or until the edges are lightly browned.
6 Drape cooling cookies over rolling pins: Let the cookies stay on the baking sheets for half a minute, or until they are just firm enough to hold their shape. Then drape them over the side of a rolling pin or bottle.
(If the cookies have become too firm to drape, put them in the warm oven for a few minutes to soften.)
Let the cookies cool completely.
