Senbei 煎餅, Rice Crackers

Senbei, or rice cracker in English, is one of my vices.  If Pringles claims that "once you pop, you can't stop", well then, this is worse for me.  It's that crunch and texture that gets me.  Though at home, it is rather difficult to produce the airy, fluffy, MSG ladden variety that you may find in stores.  What the home user can do is make use of leftover rice and create these, which has the crunch factor and flavour, but unfortunately, not the airiness though.

The nice thing about making senbei is that you can put in any flavour you can imagine.  But just beware that your seasoning is already salted which will make it extra salty if you keep adding for increased flavour.  The key with senbei is to keep it low sodium and DRY.  If it is not dry, it will not crunch and will spoil very quickly.

STACKERS!

Tuiles

I'm not sure what made me decide to make these, but I do remember that I have a bunch of egg whites that needed to be dealt with and I didn't feel like making macarons.

So, I looked through my baking books and this one seemed easy enough.  I had some recollection of what these cookies tasted like, it's like one of those childhood kind of taste.

Before we begin, a word about "sifted flour" and "flour, sift in".  The difference is that "sifted flour" is measured after you've sifted it, so it's a bit more airy and loose.  "Flour, sift in" is you measure the amount, then sift into your batter also creating a light and loose flour.  The main difference becomes that actual volume you put in, sifted flour will have a larger volume by weight since it is fluffed up.  Or if you baking by volume, sifted flour will be lighter than unsifted in the same volume.

Also, feel free to substitute vanilla extract for flavours like orange or lemon zest, etc.

Langues de Chats

If it involves cats, I'm there.

It does make a good substitute for a cat tongue, doesn't it? ;)

Langues de Chats is French for "Cat's Tongues".  And they're very similar to tuiles, similar in recipe, in flavour and in addictiveness.

This recipe came from the Laduree Sucre book.  They were sort of enticing to begin with and after making a batch of Pots de Crème, I had a bunch of egg whites left over so I decided to give it a whirl.

My intention is sort of to give all the recipes in the Sucre book a go.