miladyinsanity

I'm really tempted. I can find chestnuts very easily here. Except that I'd have to make the puree myself and I think I'll end up eating the chestnuts I'm planning to puree.

When the soft ball syrup poured into the egg whites, the heat transferred provides enough energy to form more stable complexes than in the case of Swiss Meringue, where the whole thing is only heated to 120/160F? Or it could be that cooking the sugar with the unwhipped egg whites interferes with something. I do find that whipped egg whites are more stable when sugar is added after it's gotten to soft peaks stage.

I hope you have your hand sitting in a bowl of cool not ice-cold water. This is a good excuse to order take-out. If you had been here today you could have taken your hand directly from the hot pan and grabbed the jar of mayonnaisse that I had been searching for everywhere only to find it where? In the freezer of course. Novel idea. ← Karen! In the freezer? Is it still usable? Wouldn't the fats and stuff have coagulated into some disgusting mess?

That's hilarious!

There's a Chinese dessert soup that uses corn. I can dig out a recipe if you want it, Cheryl.

It's Alice Medrich's Albert's Mousse from Bittersweet. You can get the recipe here. Um, the amount of chocolate is different depending on the percentage. I use Valrhona's Caraibe, which is 66%, so it's 5.25oz chocolate and 50g sugar. And you know, before chilling it, I licked the beaters and the bowl (just kidding ) and it didn't taste rich at all. Tasted like chocolate folded into meringue, and equally light.

I love it, K8! And please, a demo of the caviar?

I had a chocolate mousse tartlet. I still have one left, and may take pics tomorrow. How can a chocolate mousse with no cream/butter be so rich? Or feel so rich?

Dorie, that is exactly what I do!

There are many pound cakes that don't have sour cream/cream/cream cheese etc if you are trying to cut down the fat content. ETA: You can try yogurt as a sub for sour cream. Or Buttermilk.

I don't know anything, but I remember reading that Swiss and Italian taste the same, but Swiss sets softer. Or the other way around.

That's odd. Don't you add sugar to emphasize the heat, rather than to balance it?

I have read all 48 pages of this thread. Today, I took the pan out of the oven and set it down on top of the stove. Next I needed to use the stove. In my right hand I had the pot holder and my left hand was bare. Guess which hand I grabbed the hot pan with. I typed this, very slowly, with one hand.

If you have Flo Braker's Sweet Miniatures, there's a recipe for a cake that uses cake scraps. I think it's the Punsch torte, but I don't have the book and can't be sure.

Preety! More puff pastry. This time matchsticks, or batonettes if you gotta get fancy. My current favorite cookie: Russian Bread I am making Chocolate Mousse Tartlets today.

Anywhere you would use water, bread dough, cake batter, etc. Adds a nice flavour. ← For some reason, I think they'd be fantastic in gougeres. Or anything with cheese.

I like the suggestions. I never ever order chocolate desserts or ice cream in restaurants. At home, I know the chocolate and cocoa I'm using is Valrhona. As for ice cream, it's rarely ever made in-house and is usually too sweet anyway. I like the idea of a dessert sample tray. At a favorite cafe of mine, they sell very small squares of brownies and clafouti, gerbet macarons and tiny tartlets.

Gee, my mother has to have a secret then because she manages to get me to drink Pak Chan soup and I'm the person who can't even stand the smell of soaking shiitake mushrooms.

Jenny, congratulations! But I sincerely hope that never happens to me--I believe white chocolate is an abomination.

You could do jelly cubes of tea. Starbucks has been doing this coffee jelly in coffee drink. Hmm... You could decorate with the cubes, especially if you're doing a sorbet/granita. They'd look like jewels, I bet.

You might want to replace it with a small amount of something else like some cocoa butter. Leaving it out will change the texture, a bit softer I suspect. ← Thanks Kerry! I'll try it without first, because I've no idea what to replace it with and I don't have access to cocoa butter.

You can see me on my avatar if you squint! But here's a picture (I generally hate taking pictures of myself!) so that you know I exist Enjoy. Or die Miladyinsanity : What will you be studying? Did you ship box-fulls of Maggi Mee to UK yet? ← Pretty! I hate to tell you this, but I don't eat instant noodles. My midnight snack of choice is pasta, which is what I'm eating now, LOL. I'm hoping to become an economist. I am also Mei, though I spell it May.

Mei, I'm really loving this blog. The food porn pictures were great. I'm a Singaporean, and it's really great to see a foodblog from someone in kinda the same position I'll be next year--I'm moving overseas, probably UK, to study. By the way, have we seen a picture of you yet?

I feel very healthy after reading this thread.

I've eaten a tray of very very butter palmiers and now I feel sick.