These praline tuile sandwich cookies have a ganache filling too good to be true!
These are so outrageous. Beyond. Absolutely over-the-top scrumptious. And pretty! Aren’t they just gorgeous? Made with oats and pecans—and plenty of brown butter and sugar—these cookies are really just tuiles sandwiched together with dark chocolate ganache. In fact, they are so delicate and malleable when they first come out of the oven that they can be lifted gently onto the backside of a bowl and shaped into edible bowls themselves, perfect for nesting mousse, ice cream, sorbet, or berries.
Equipment: dry and wet measuring cups; measuring spoons; small saucepan; rubber spatula; spoons; parchment paper or silicone baking sheets; sheet pans; offset spatula; cooling rack
Ingredients: ¼ cup finely chopped pecans, toasted
1/3 cup unsalted butter
½ cup packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 teaspoon whole milk
1/8 teaspoon salt
¾ cup old fashioned rolled oats
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup heavy cream
8 ounces dark chocolate, finely chopped
1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or a nonstick baking sheet and set aside.
2. In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring the butter to a boil. Adjust the heat and boil the butter gently for 3-4 minutes, until the milk solids turn brown.
3. Remove the pan from the heat, and then add the brown sugar, corn syrup, milk, and salt. Stir until well blended. Then add the oats, flour, vanilla and pecans. Stir well to incorporate, and then add the toasted, chopped pecans.
4. Drop the batter by the teaspoonful on the lined sheet pan, 3 inches apart. Bake in the upper third of the oven for 6-8 minutes, or until the cookie is golden brown all over but slightly darker around the edges (the batter will spread).
5. Set the cookie sheet aside for a few minutes until the cookies becomes firm. Very carefully remove the cookies from the sheet pan to a cooling rack pan using a thin, offset spatula and set aside in a safe place. Bake off the remaining batter by the teaspoon, 3 inches apart.
"ILOC tip: if you are unhappy with how your cookies look when you remove them from the oven, take the back of a paring knife and tap it around around each cookie to help form perfect circles (see video below). It's all about technique, not torture! But you must work quickly while the cookies are soft enough to be manipulated. Once they cool, the shape is pretty much set."
6. Once all the lace cookies are baked, prepare the chocolate ganache. Bring the heavy cream to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove the pan from the heat and add the chocolate. Le the chocolate sit for 1-2 minutes in the hot cream to soften. Stir until most of the chocolate is melted. Cover and let stand for 10 minutes. Stir gently until completely smooth. Set aside until cooled.
"Instead of making chocolate ganache, you could just melt chocolate as the filling. This would produce a crispy cookie instead of a chewy cookie, which is equally delicious."
7. Using a small offset spatula, spread the ganache on the flat side (the side that touched the lined sheet pan) of a lace cookie. Top with another lace cookie and set aside. Repeat until all the cookie sandwiches are formed. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.
Store the cookies in an airtight container, ideally in the refrigerator, for up to one week.
"Some cookies can and should be refrigerated. These cookies are quite delicate. Their centers are made of ganache, which is tender itself. Refrigerating the assembled cookies makes them last for a couple of weeks as opposed to a couple of days. Since they are so thin and delicate, they come to temperature very quickly. You won’t mind eating them cold, though."
Lace Cookies to Tuile Baskets
These cookies make the prettiest baskets for holding, mousse, ice cream, sorbet, or fruit. The key is to bake only a few at a time and remove them from the sheet pan onto upside-down bowls as quickly as possible to set the shape (see photos below).
