After missing two months in a row, I am back in the game. At some point, I would like to do a make up on November and December's challenges, I do not know when.

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.

I chose to make my tuiles all chocolate, since there is little that cannot be improved with more chocolate. As we were to pair them with something soft, I made pomegranate gelato to go with these. Pomegranate and chocolate are wonderful together, which we have recently discovered in our home.



I thought of making lovely little butterflies as were the examples, but decided on the slightly more plebeian bowls. I have experience making fortune cookies, and this dough wasn't that different to work, so I thought I had an advantage there. However, I had a much harder time shaping this dough than I do with the fortune cookies. My first batch of two were far too thin, and were instantly crisp. I couldn't shape them at all. The second batch was too thick, and never crisped up at all. I ended up making them one at a time, adjusting the baking time and the thickness in the hopes of getting just two bowls that would work. There were four bowls that work, though I wasn't that thrilled with them.

The flavor is great, but the texture isn't what I wanted. I don't know if it is the addition of the cocoa powder, and the fat that comes with it, that changed it, but they never really got crisp. So, although they went well with the gelato and tasted fine, they got soggier than I would have liked.

Pomegranate Gelato
I don't know if you can really call this gelato with this much cream in it, but there you are. I looked at a few recipes, combined techniques and altered ingredients and this is what I came up with in the end.

1 1/2 cups pomegranate juice (bottled or fresh)
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 cups half and half
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 tablespoons PAMA liqueur

In a microwave safe glass bowl, I use one of those measuring cup/pourer/bowl deals, heat the pomegranate juice and sugar about two minutes to fully dissolve the sugar into the juice. Stir in the lemon juice. Add the half and half and cream and whisk well. Whisk in the PAMA liqueur. Cover and chill at least four hours, or overnight.

Give mixture a stir to make sure everything is evenly distributed and put in an ice cream maker and freeze according to the directions for your machine. Remove gelato from machine. It is fine to eat straight out of the machine, but will be soft. For firmer gelato that is easier to work with, put in a sealed container and freeze for about two hours.



We had the opportunity to make a savory tuile as well, and I took that opportunity to use some ingredients from my heritage. I used za'atar to flavor the tuile and made a dip out of feta, olive oil, harissa and mint.



See the sad, empty platter? The dough is made for this, but I didn't have time to bake them in time to post today, so that picture will come later tonight (I hope).



Thank you for a fun challenge! We definitely enjoyed these treats, even though they weren't exactly what I expected. The only thing I have left to do now is to decide whether to make custard with the remaining egg yolks or if I should just add them to our next breakfast of scrambled eggs.

Labels: Daring Bakers, Homemaking, Recipes, Tales from the Kitchen