AmberM

I found the Kahlua raspberries in an old issue of Chocolatier ('98 maybe? ). Here it is- doubled: Heat to boiling 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup Kahlua. Combine 1 T cornstarch and 1/4 c water and whisk into the Kahlua mixture. Keep whisking and boil for 1 minute or until thickened. Cool to room temp, then stir into 12 oz fresh raspberries and 1/2 c. sugar. I made this a few hours before serving, and they are good for several days. The last of the leftover berries were just finished last night and were still delicious!

I just made Nick Malgieri's version (recipe HERE ) last weekend for an event featuring a tex-mex band. All the mexican guys in the band were asking me how a gringa learned to make such a good tres leches so I guess it was a hit! I thought it was really delicious too, but I did not strictly follow the recipe. I made the cake in an 8" x 12" x 2" metal cake pan instead of the glass, lined the bottom with parchment for easy release, but did not grease the pan. Before I poured the milks over it to soak, I removed the cake from the pan and peeled off the parchment, then put the cake back in the pan. I also doubled the whipped cream for the topping. Oh, I also left out the lime zest in the milks and topping. And I made Kahlua raspberries to go with it. Was that all too much information?

Oh wow- I think I would cry without a sprayer. I can't believe your boss is paying you to spend that much time on dishes and not pastry. Does he know how much money he's losing?

Okay, you just reminded me of an old peeve....try cleaning dried pate a choux out of a pastry bag that your irresponsible co-worker left for you. Or syrup carelessly sprayed all over the 60qt mixer by another co-worker while making Italian meringue. And no, I was not an apprentice or intern- just the only one who bothered to clean!

Wow, high praise from someone I have admired lurkily (is that a word?) on these forums thank you! I am sure if you had been here to see them in person and witness the hollow, sometimes flat or otherwise malformed shells you might feel different.... They were incredibly delicious though.

I finally made macs for the first time- overall I was really pleased with the way they came out, and it helped that nobody here had ever even seen, eaten, or heard of them so they were a huge hit! Thanks to everyone here (I have been lurking the macs thread for some time now) for all the tips and the courage to finally try, and special thanks to Helen (Tartlette) for the formula and instructions I used. I did have problems with the shells being a bit hollow but once they were filled you couldn't really tell. Also had some trouble getting a lot of them off the parchment. Over-baked a batch, over-mixed some, but really had a lot of fun trying to figure the whole thing out. So now I am completely addicted and will probably spend every spare moment trying to perfect them. Pictured are mixed berry (plain shell, vanilla buttercream with berry filling in the middle), chocolate, creamy earl grey (finely ground tea in the shells and tea infused white chocolate ganache), and lavender (plain shell with lavender infused white chocolate ganache).

Hi- this is my first post! I think my most hated thing to clean is a tie between the dough sheeter and my Kook-E-King......both are a tremendous pain in the a**!