You may even fail to secure the collar, built out of wax paper or aluminum foil and taped or pinned to side of the pan, well enough to support the whole shebang as it inflates dramatically up above the edge. Emulsification is the key to this classic French condiment, which is a close relative to hollandaise. Lift Up Local, If you want to attempt one for the occasion, more power to you—and please send us photos. Oven mitts are the hand-wear of champions today. The fruit must be washed and, depending on which kind you use, may also need to be hulled, cut, and/or crushed. Get the latest updates in news, food, music and culture, and receive special offers direct to your inbox, Upcoming Houston Food Events: Picos' Tamales Are Back for the Season, Openings and Closings: Yi Peng Thai, Masraff's Open, Good Dog Montrose Will Close, 10 of the Most Difficult Recipes to Make at Home. A couple Christmases ago, I decided to try this one. This is a great recipe when you don't want to wait for the dough to rise. Trust me, when Julia Child's recipe fills three pages of her cookbook and references two extra recipes to make brown-braised small white onions and mushrooms sautéed in butter, you're going to be cooking the entire day. Not only are macarons challenging to perfectly execute, but if you make them in a city with so much humidity, like Houston, you're going to have a much more difficult time. You won't know if you accomplish cooking the outside of the cake and maintaining the "lava" of chocolate on the inside until you take a bite. If you thought making an ice cream cake was hard, try making Baked Alaska. Undercook it and the entire cake falls apart; overcook it and you essentially made a cake -- whoop dee freaking doo. Then, take your chilled puffed pastry, roll it out and wrap it around the crepe-wrapped tenderloin. Baked Alaska, two-thirds of which has to be prepared half a day or more ahead, is making a comeback after about 30 or 40 years, so it seems. If you’re still willing to go through with this whole thing, whip up a batch of crepes and set them aside for later use. As I attempted to assemble the dessert, everything went wrong. Be careful not to overcook the beef cuts, or all of your hard work will be wasted. I bet you're still reading. Get our Soufflé recipes. This involves simmering everything but the egg yolks and butter together so the flavors meld, letting the mixture cool long enough not to cook the egg yolks once you add them, and then, over a double boiler, whisking the whole thing over low heat until it thickens and doubles in volume. Pancakes never come out perfectly and they require constant tending; French toast makes a mess and you have to be careful not to cover your counter in eggs; you always burn some toast (even though it's the easiest task); and don't even try to make eggs for everyone, unless they all agree on scrambled. To prevent injury, make the dough in small batches or, better yet, buy the pastry ready-made so you can get straight to fun stuff: stacking the cream puffs as high as you dare and covering your architectural masterpiece in hot caramel sauce. Our Easy Baked Alaska recipe suggests using a blowtorch, instead of the oven, for perfect a dessert every time. Move over, boxing gloves. We use cookies to collect and analyze information on site performance and usage, and to enhance and customize content and advertisements. Beware any recipe that claims pâte à choux dough is easy to make. But just for fun, let’s take a look at the most labor-intensive dishes around. Unless you live in a climate-controlled environment without a hint of humidity, don’t even think about making macarons at home; meringues and moist air just don’t mix well. So get thee to the grocery store and then make our Spanakopita recipe. Much like laminated dough, making your own phyllo dough by hand is a royal PITA. The second, known as Italian meringue, involves slowly and carefully beating a hot sugar syrup into egg whites that have been whipped into soft peaks. I'm always up for a challenge when it comes to cooking a dish with many, many steps. But, if you don't pack the salt and egg white mixture tight enough, you risk salt crystals leaking into the fish as it cooks and when you break into the shell, creating an almost unbearable flavor. And who wants to spend a hot summer day indoors working over steaming pots of water and simmering jam? I find it an easy dessert for a party. Then, top it with ice cream, stick the whole thing in the freezer to make sure it doesn’t melt, take it out, encase it in a thick layer of whipped meringue, return it to the freezer to make sure it doesn’t melt, and then bake it in the oven.