A spoonful of sugar

After a December of hibernating indoors, eating rich meals and even richer desserts, drinking, talking and too little time spent exercising, January has come and brought with it a renewed energy for getting out and enjoying winter. The snowy weather came very early this year so it felt like the Christmas indulgences extended over a very long period. Not that I'm complaining. Christmas is my favourite time of year and I love all the times we gathered with family and friends to enjoy a great meal and even better company.

But January has made me realize how much I need to get out in the fresh (very fresh!) air and embrace winter. Being a person who loves the sun and is constantly cold, this isn't the easiest thing to do but it does give me the energy to get through the often long, dark days.

So, all this exercise and renewed energy has allowed me to keep up with my baking and avoid making any nasty New Year's resolutions about cutting out yummy indulgences that make life worth living. Not that I didn't appreciate that this month's DB challenge called for making something light. This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Baking Soda 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. While I can't say that lemon mousse is light in the calorie sense, it sure tastes light and wonderful on the tongue!

Tuiles are made from an easy dough to put together. The ingredient list isn't long or costly. The only tricks I found to making them is to spread the batter evenly so that you get the brown edges and pale center you're looking for and to get them out of the oven and shaped quickly before they are too hard to take the form you want.

Taking inspiration from some pics that I saw on Flickr, I made my tuiles in the shape of spoons to enjoy as a small indulgence with coffee. The lemon mousse recipe was adapted from the December challenge and comes together nicely. I'll admit that I punched up the yellow to give me the sunshine that I've been missing and craving.
Thanks to Christine for her wonderful pictures of the tuiles. She is such a talented photographer - making quick work of the job and letting her exuberance shine forth in whatever she does. Check out her awesome website at www.clickphotography.ca and be prepared to be dazzled by her body of work.

I'm also throwing in a picture of macarons that I finally thought were getting closer to what I see in all of my favourite blogs. These date back to the December challenge when I had extra egg whites to use up. Unfortunately I decided to store them in a ziploc bag in my freezer (all tins being having been filled with Christmas cookies) and many didn't survive my ins/outs of the freezer all holiday season. These were the best of the remaining ones - I'm saving all of the broken pieces to add to some dessert element in the future. Maybe February's challenge will give me just that opportunity...
Kelly