Crisp, lacy tuile cookies are pure, sweet simplicity—maple syrup (or sugar), butter, flour and salt. Here, they’re flavored with orange zest (or rosemary). Recipes below.

MID-MARCH FOUND US IN UPSTATE NEW YORK, in the middle of maple syrup season. There, we met Dave and Cecilia Deuel. They have a small farm near Avon, New York, where they grow and sell “all-natural vegetables and berries” under the name of Moondance Gardens at their roadside market on Route 20. And between late February and early April, they make maple syrup.

As Dave and I walked out to their small woodlot overlooking the Genesee River Valley, he told me a little about making syrup. Each year, they tap about 250 trees, collecting 40 quarts of sap per tree on average. They boil the sap in a small barn by the house, cooking it down to about 1/40th of its original volume. So each tree produces about a quart of maple syrup. Continue reading “French lace times two: Maple Tuiles with orange zest, rosemary” →