Tuile History

There isn’t much from what I can dig up, except to say that the name means tile, the clear reference being to old world clay roofing tiles. Similar tile-shaped cookies in Spain and Italy are called tejas and tegolinos respectively.

Age-wise, there’s nothing in the standard literature to indicate when they became popular. My guess would be the late 1700’s, since that was about the time that crystalized sugar became widely available in Europe. They employ no leavening, which may mean they predate the advent of chemical leaveners (around 1800), but it’s hard to say. Maybe they didn’t need any.

And so it seems the tuile has slipped through the cracks of culinary history. But then it’s a pretty thin cookie, so I suppose that shouldn’t suprise me.