Flavored Parmesan Tuiles/Crisps
These thin, firm sheets of baked parmesan cheese are an elegant, flavorful garnish for all sorts of savory dishes. They can even be formed into very delicate cups if you’re quick when they come out of the oven.
They’re already full of flavor (especially if you use real parmigiano reggiano, which we highly recommend for this), it’s easy to add other finely ground ingredients to impart additional flavors. We experimented with both porcini powder and chile powder with very tasty results.
If you’re grinding your own chile powder, you can control the spiciness level of your chiles by removing some or all of their seeds prior to grinding…the more seeds you leave in the hotter the powder will generally be. We used dried japones chilies with all the seeds in…which gave these tuiles a late, but very potent, spicy kick following the initial burst of cheesiness when you took a bite.
INGREDIENTS
- Base:
- Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese
- Possible Flavorings:
- Ground Dried Porcini Mushrooms (How to Grind Mushroom Powder)
- Chile Powder (How to Grind Chile Powders)
- Equipment:
- Box Grater
- Baking Sheet or Sheet Pan
- Silicon Baking Mat (aka Silpat) or Parchment Paper
- Optional: Small Ramekins, Mise en Place Cups, or Ring Molds
DIRECTIONS
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For Plain Tuiles: Pile the cheese in separate mounds on top of the silicon mat or parchment paper. The more cheese you use, the larger the tuiles will be. We used roughly ¼ cup of cheese for each.
For Flavored Tuiles: Build the piles, but only put half of the cheese you’re using for each one on the pan. Add 1-2 pinches of your flavoring evenly distributed across the cheese. Cover the flavorings with the other half of the cheese.
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For Flat Tuiles: Remove the pan from the oven and let the tuiles cool. Serve.
For (Fragile) Parmesan Cups: Remove the pan from the oven and let the tuiles cool briefly. They will firm up as they cool, so you want to wait until they’ve hardened enough to hold together, but are still flexible.
Quickly drape the tuiles over the small cups or in ring molds to form them into rustic cup shapes. Let them finish cooling. Serve.