Fresh Berry Tulip with White Chocolate Ice Cream

This is the kind of dessert you see in pastry-shop windows and assume must be impossibly difficult to make. The trick is the tuile cookie (French for ‘roof tile'), a thin, delicate wafer that’s still warm when it comes out of the oven and can be draped over an inverted cup to set into a tulip-shaped edible bowl. Cool, peel off, and you have a beautiful vessel for whatever goes inside.

For fillings, this recipe loads the tuile with a rainbow of fresh berries: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. Whipped cream goes in with them, and a scoop of white chocolate ice cream crowns the top. Four textures (crisp, creamy, cold, juicy) in one forkful.

The tuile batter is simple: butter, sugar, egg whites, vanilla, and flour. Spread thin on a parchment-lined sheet pan and bake just until the edges brown. Work quickly once they come out of the oven, since tuiles harden in under a minute, and once brittle, they can’t be molded.

Chef Tips

• Bake one tuile at a time at first until you master the timing.
• Use the bottom of an inverted 46-ounce juice can or large drinking glass to shape the tulips.
• If a tuile hardens before you can shape it, return to the oven for 30 seconds to soften.
• Shape tuiles the day you serve; humidity makes them soft overnight.

Variations

• Swap vanilla, pistachio, or chocolate ice cream for white chocolate.
• Add toasted sliced almonds to the tuile batter for nutty crunch.
• Drizzle raspberry or chocolate sauce across the plate for presentation.