I had an order for one of my personal favorites, red velvet cupcakes. For those of you unfamiliar with red velvet, it is a buttermilk cake, tinted red, with a hint of cocoa. The buttermilk helps make the cake really moist and soft. It satisfies those chocolate-sweet cravings without being too much.

Traditionally, it’s paired with cream cheese frosting, which I find extremely delicious, but I’ve also seen variations in either a white chocolate or chocolate frosting. I made a light milk chocolate buttercream for my cupcakes and was really pleased with the result.

I also punched out some fondant circles (aka wafers, a la Martha Stewart) and stamped them with the letter “D”, to celebrate the birthday girl monogram-style. Of course to do this required clean, unused stamps and a trip to Michael’s Crafts revealed quite the upgrade in stampery…they make clear stamps now that allow you to create your very own stamps in endless combinations! Quite the find and definitely something to consider for future personalized projects.

A few days later I was making miniature-size cupcakes from a yellow cake batter enhanced with ground ginger. This time I topped them with a bittersweet chocolate buttercream and sprinkles, of course, since they were cupcakes and they were indeed created for a birthday celebration, so it was only fitting. Yellow cake with chocolate frosting seems to be an American birthday classic.  I was very impressed with the chocolate buttercream experimentations this week, they tasted even better than I had predicted!

Of course, once the cupcake production ceased I had time to do other things, like pay a visit to one of the farmer’s markets on Wednesday. I keep returning to buy organic blueberries, which happened to be just right last week: large, firm, and sweet.

We had some ricotta cheese leftover in the fridge so I channeled Tyler Florence and plopped a few spoonfuls in the food processor along with some lemon zest and powdered sugar, just to sweeten it up a bit. The blueberries were sugared and slowly simmered in a pot with some strawberries, raspberries, and fresh lemon juice until soft and compote-like, about 12 minutes.

A few spoonfuls of the berries over the lemon ricotta mixture with a chocolate wafer (leftover from ice cream sandwich-making) and you have yourself the quintessential summer dessert: light, fruity, fresh.

I finished off my weekend with herbal tea and freshly baked croissants (pain au chocolat for my mom), because I have missed them eating them in pastry school.

This week I am looking forward to creating an assortment of petit fours for my mom’s book club. More to come on this later!

We made brioche dough again, but this time we shaped it differently. The brioche has been one of my favorite breads we’ve made, especially when it is sprinkled with pearl sugar.

Photograph (right): Chouquettes

We also made a variety of breads- farmer’s bread, country bread, and sourdough multigrain. The country bread was dotted with walnuts. Croissant dough was made again (practice makes perfect!), but this time they were made into almond croissants and chocolate croissants.

On Friday we began making doughs for our petit fours unit. These included sweet dough, chocolate sweet dough, and two sable doughs.

Week 5 marked the start of our petit fours unit. French petit fours are small bite-sized desserts and pastries, which I like because not only are they cute, but they are perfect for having ‘just a taste’. We made pate a choux dough that was piped into a couple of shapes: mini eclairs, salambos, paris brest, and chouquettes.

A very rich, chocolate pastry cream was piped into the miniature eclairs, which were then topped with a chocolate fondant icing.

Salambos are shorter, fatter miniature eclair shapes that are filled with vanilla pastry cream and dipped in hot caramel, which hardens as it cools, creating an addictive crunchy, sweet, soft, and creamy experience in your mouth when you eat one.

The paris brest are circles filled with a praline cream and toasted almonds. Chouquettes are miniature cream puff shapes filled with a mixture of hazelnut paste, pastry cream, and buttercream.

Photograph (below): Salambos

Photograph (below): Pain au chocolat

Photograph (below): Country bread

Photograph (below): Farmer’s bread

We also made dacquoise, which are delightful nutty meringue wafers surrounding a rich filling. Then we made miniature blueberry tarts and almond-apricot tarts. The week was finished out by a large batch of French macarons.

That weekend I staged at a very cute bakery called Le Flour. The chefs and advisors here highly recommend we stage at restaurants, pastry shops, bakeries, and hotels as much as we can. To stage, you usually work one shift for free. While you may only be doing simple things, you can still check out the activity taking place and the best part is that it is just a short-term commitment.

One thing I noticed at Le Flour was how much fun the staff were having, working. They were all family and friends and that really got me thinking…

Photograph (below): Chouquettes

Photograph (below): Apricot almond tartlets

Photograph (below): Blueberry tartlets topped with streusel

I think I have been following a strict butter diet. On to the food…

Photograph (right): Pear danish

TUESDAY:

We didn’t have class on Monday due to MLK Day. Tuesday arrived with a bang, as we made french bread, started beignet dough and croissant dough, and made waffles.

The French bread was delicious, we shaped half of the dough into baguettes and the other half into loaves, or batons. It was crusty, soft, and not the least bit chewy.

The waffles turned out thick and fluffy, perfect for trapping tasty toppings.

Photograph (below): French baguettes

Photograph (below): French baguettes and batons

Photograph (below): Waffles

WEDNESDAY:

Wednesday was a fun day to me because I was so fascinated by the process for making croissant and danish dough. The dough is prepared to a certain point and then proofed in the refrigerator overnight. Then, on this day, we pounded butter into very thin sheets and incorporated them into the dough.

A series of folds is done with the dough to create distinct layers of fat in between the dough. It is these layers that will create all those marvelous flakes we fondly associate with a classic, true croissant. The butter melts during baking, and consequently releases steam, producing millions of flaky layers.

Photograph (below): A flaky croissant

Photograph (below): The cross-section of  a croissant

Photograph (below): Pain a La Biere

We fried our beignet dough balls into fluffy, soft “french doughnuts”, which were rolled in granulated sugar and dusted with powdered sugar. I enjoyed mine with Nutella and it was amazing.

We then made a very rustic version of beer bread, Pain de Biere. The bread had the hearty addition of rye flour, and was brushed with a mixture of beer, salt, yeast, and flour, giving it a gorgeous red color.

Photograph (below): Beignets

Photograph (below): A tender (and utterly irresistible) beignet

THURSDAY:

We made danish dough, another type of baguette using a sponge starter, pastry cream, and the dough for Kugelhopf, a German pastry. It reminds me of both a cake and a bread, and is studded with Kirsch-soaked golden raisins.

Photograph (below): Kugelhopf

FRIDAY:

We finished our Kugelhopf by baking it in beautiful molds that are made just for Kugelhopf. Before placing the dough in the molds, almonds are arranged in a pattern on the bottom. The danishes were completed today, and filled with almond frangipane- a delicious combination of pastry cream and almond cream, then topped with either apricot halves or pear slices.

Photograph (below): Apricot danish

Photograph (below): Pear danish

We also made croissants, again, but this time they will be frozen and baked later next week. Instead of making them the traditional style, they will be either chocolate and almond variations.

For additional practice, we baked lemon pound again. Practice truly does make perfect-they turned out even better this time.

Photograph (below): Lemon pound cake

Next week we will be finishing up our breads and breakfast pastries, so by Friday we can begin petit fours.

The best part? These will take you about 35 minutes, from starting to devouring your first bite. Frozen puff pastry is the secret to these festive tartlets. While I toyed with the idea of making my own puff pastry (truly only something a pastry geek like myself would do) I decided to settle on that tried-and-true packaged variety typically found in the frozen section of grocery stores.

All I had to do was let it thaw at room temperature for about half an hour, and then I was ready to go (Just make sure that the day you want to make these you move the puff pastry from your freezer to your refrigerator earlier in the day so it will be thawed for later). While I waited for my puff pastry to thaw, I chatted with my Grandma Pat AND got everything else ready. Peeled and sliced the apples: check. Combined the cinnamon and sugar: check. Melted butter: check.

There is no fancy dough folding or difficult crust to work with either. But what makes these tartlets even more adorable is the fact that they are perfect for holiday entertaining. You can make them earlier in the day (they are best eaten the day they are baked), then relax knowing you have dessert taken care of and more time to spend with your guests. Alternatively, I know I would gladly eat these tartlets for breakfast too, so consider that option. You won’t be getting up at the crack of dawn for these. Definitely a way to make guests feel welcome!

Other fruits and fillings would work well for these tartlets too- cherry, cream cheese, chocolate ganache…although this apple version is classic.

This recipe is in tune with my “eating seasonally” inspiration. There are many varieties of apples that would work in this recipe: jonathon, spartan, ida red, golden delicious, granny smith, and cortland, all because they keep their form when they bake, preventing them from turning into mush.

Maple Apple Tartlets (Eat Feed Autumn Winter by Anne Bramley)

• 1 sheet puff pastry, thawed (you will have one leftover in your package)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 3 small to medium baking apples
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment. In a small bowl, mix the cinnamon and sugar. Peel (a vegetable peeler works great for this), core, and cut the apples in half. Place one half, cut side down, on a cutting board. With a small sharp knife, thinly slice the apple half into about 12 slices. Do not move or separate the slices. Repeat with the remaining 5 halves. Leave cut side down.

Cut the puff pastry into 6 rectangles and place on the baking sheet. Pick up one apple half without disturbing the slices. Place on a pastry rectangle and apply slight pressure on the diagonal to fan out the apple slices until they nearly fill the length of the pastry rectangle. Leave a border of 1/4 inch all the way around. Repeat with remaining rectangles of puff pastry and apple halves.

Sprinkle each tartlet with the cinnamon and sugar mixture. Drizzle with the melted butter. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the pastry is golden around the edges and the apples are softened. Drizzle each with 1 teaspoon of maple syrup. Serve warm or at room temperature. These are best served the day they are made.

Yield: 6 tartlets (6 generous servings, it is best give each person their own tartlet)