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1
Combine softened butter and icing sugar and work together until smooth and homogeneous. Add the sifted flour and mix to incorporate. Add the egg whites gradually, stirring until the batter is fluid, lump-free, and falls from the spoon in a slow, even ribbon.
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2
Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat. Drop teaspoons of batter well apart and spread each one with the back of a spoon to a round no thicker than 2 mm. Scatter a few flaked almonds over each round. The batter should be translucent at the edges — if it is not, it is too thick.
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3
Bake at 180 °C for 8–10 minutes. The tuiles are ready when the colour is an even, unbroken gold across the entire surface — not merely at the edges. Pale patches at the centre mean underbaking; remove them and they will be soft, not crisp.
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4
This is where the dish lives or dies. Remove the tray from the oven and immediately lift each tuile from the mat with a palette knife. The biscuit must flex like warm plastic — it bends without cracking. Drape it at once over a rolling pin or press it into a ramekin to set in the curved shape. The window from pliable to brittle is approximately 15 seconds: a tuile left flat will set flat; a tuile forced into shape after 20 seconds will crack and cannot be recovered.
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5
Allow the shaped tuiles to cool undisturbed on or in the mould until completely rigid. They are finished when they hold their curve without support and snap cleanly when broken — a clean, glassy fracture with no bend.