My obsession for those heavenly creamy, crispy, sweet French pastries, called macarons, began when I lived in Paris. I would go to the Ladurée, the pastry-shop and tearoom, almost every week to sit down like an old woman and drink tea and snack on a macaron. Ah, the wonderful gastronomic moments spent at Ladurée! It deserves its own blog post.

Recently, I discovered another incredible pastry-shop in Paris, Pierre Hermé, where you can try some interesting flavored macarons, such as caramel with fleur de sel and passion fruit with chocolate. The tiny store, located at No. 72 rue Bonaparte on the Left Bank, almost always has a quick moving line started out the door. As you enter this chic pastry boutique, your eyes are automatically drawn to the many gorgeous fruit cakes on your left. And then, as you get further into the store, all your senses are overwhelmed by the beauty -- the fresh aroma of baked sweets and the stunning displays of various cakes and macarons.

My experience at Pierre Hermé was like a glance into heaven. By the time it was my turn to order, I was speechless. I had spent the entire time in line absorbing the smells and the delicious goodies instead of figuring out which macarons I wanted to order. One of the shopkeepers gave me a menu of macarons. I studied it closely and finally bought a box of 16. Check out my favorite flavors and more after the jump.

Here in Philadelphia, we are lucky to have a small, local chain of bakeries that is devoted to making true artisan bread. Metropolitan Bakery believes in letting bread have a long, slow rise and each one of their loaves, rolls and baguettes are shaped by hand. They've been around since 1993 and back in 2003, for their 10th anniversary, they published a cookbook that is filled with their signature recipes that have been scaled down to make them appropriate for the home cook.

The Metropolitan Bakery Cookbook isn't just a vanity publication, created for the glorification of a bakery. It is a book that was obviously carefully crafted and systematically thought out, as it is really interesting to read and designed to be used. They've included recipes for all their favorite products, including their French Berry rolls and (my favorite) Millet Muffins.

In addition to the recipes, they've included picture layouts that show off their pastries and breads in all their luscious glory, along with pictures that detail how to recreate their signature twists and designs (on page 77, there are step-by-step pictures to show you how to cut, twist and fold the dough for the Cinnamon Swirl Danish). Admittedly, for those of us lucky enough to be fairly nearby a Metropolitan location, we probably won't be turning to this cookbook for much other than incentive to make a visit to the bakery, but for those of you who once visited Philadelphia and got a taste of Metropolitan pastries, this might one you could add to your collection.

So, I've gotta hand it to Starbucks. Its new site, My Starbucks Idea, is actually...well, a good idea. You sign up and simply type in a suggestion that you think the coffee chain should adopt, and post it to the site. You can also view others' advice, and vote on ones you think are worthwhile.

Then - and this is the kicker - someone from the corporation actually reads the ideas and even puts some of them into practice. Several of the ideas on the site are currently "under review," like the suggestions for implementing frequent buyer punch cards, or for implementing free Wifi access in every store (obviously, many city locations already have WiFi service).

I'm also surprised at the quality of the suggestions. Though I'd imagine that the site is highly monitored to eliminate the crazies (or, for that matter, Starbucks haters), many of the responses are actually decent and well thought-out. And some, on the other hand, are flat-out hilarious: one poster calls Starbucks' music "pseudo-intellectual," "over-produced" and "noisy garbage," while another requests that the music in his local store be turned down, so that when he's "making a business call, it doesn't sound like I'm calling from a public place." Um...isn't that what your home and office are for?

Hmm...so I guess suggesting "STOP EXPANDING YOUR CHAIN!" would probably get flagged, huh? Just a thought.

Somehow I don't feel quite right posting this sumptuous array of sweets from La Bague de Kenza, a famous Algerian pastry shop in Paris, in the lurid back alley we at Slashfood call Food Porn. But since there's no category for Food Romance, I have no choice. C'est dommage.

These towers of goodies filled with honey, nuts, rosewater and all manner of other indulgences were captured by food writer Rachel Finn. The photo graced a recent Gastronomica article titled "Gâteaux Algériens: A Love Story." Finn wanted to find a gift for a man who owned her "heart for seven years," and chose some exquisite pastries.

From the excerpt I'm led to believe that because of the depth of her relationship, and what I imagine to be one huge sweet tooth, she sampled all of the shop's wares. Romantic as that thought, is I'm not sure I buy it. Ah, who am I to say, I'm always eager to "test" gifts before giving them to a lover who's as passionate about food as I am. Of course one always runs the risk of consuming the present before giving it to one's significant gourmand.
[via: Algerian Cuisine]

Interesting map over at Bostonist. It shows the number of Dunkin' Donuts locations within a 5 mile radius of the downtown area. Seems that there are 50 of them! Of course, that was when this map was posted on April 26. I'm sure another dozen or so have opened up since then. It sort of gives you a comforting feeling, if you live in Boston. Not sure how many Starbucks locations there are.

Speaking of Dunkin Donuts, have you seen the new ad with Rachael Ray. Ugh. Are they trying to drive customers away? I don't need her to come up to the counter and order a bagel and coffee and give an insincere "delish" to get me to come in. I already like the place.

So I was drinking a nice hot cup of Dunkin' Donuts hot chocolate the other day (probably one of the last of the season as the damn temps keep going up and up), and I noticed their newish logo (on the right). It needs work.

I mean, I love the slogan, "America Runs On Dunkin'." It's not only catchy, but it firmly establishes DD's national presence very quickly. And the logo is a clever idea. But let's take a look at the four panels one by one and see if we can make the logo even better.

I mentioned a while back that I could no longer find Kellogg's Nutri-Grain bars at any of the supermarkets in my area, and several of you left comments and sent e-mail saying you couldn't find them either. I'm pretty sure they're not being made anymore (though Nutri-Grain does have various breakfast pastries). Now I think I've found a great substitute.

Quaker has just released their own Breakfast Bars (so new they're not on their site yet), and in the same flavors that the Nutri-Grain bars came in, blueberry and banana muffin! The verdict? They're quite good. They're smaller and not as moist as the Nutri-Grain bars were. These have a slightly tougher, toastier look and feel to them, but I like them a lot.

Note to Quaker: don't discontinue these! Or, if you're going to, give me a heads up so I can buy several cases from you. Thanks.

The problem with drinking coffee to get your daily caffeine fix is that some people don't really care for the taste, even if it comes in the form of a sweet, milky mocha latte from the nearest coffee bar. Energy drinks partially solved the problem by adding more sugar (or artificial sweeteners) to cover up the taste, but a molecular scientist, Dr. Robert Bohannon, has come up with what he thinks is an even better way to catch a buzz. He has come up with a way to add caffeine to baked goods.

Buzz Donuts and Buzzed Bagels are the first of what will probably be many caffeinated pastries. Bohannon originally had some difficulty in disguising the taste of the caffeine, which has a very bitter flavor on its own, but once he got the flavoring under control, he was able to add quite a lot of caffeine to his products. Each one contains the equivalent of two cups of coffee, or about 100mg per pastry.

Bohannon has already approached Krispy Kreme, Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts about selling his pastries.

If you know how to bake really good chocolate chip cookies or everyone loves your lemon bundt cake when you bring it to parties, odds are that you've had at least one or two people tell you that you should go into the business of baking and open a bakery. Perhaps you've even thought about it on your own a few times. It'll be easy, right?

"Easy" is subjective, so you can judge for yourself. Egullet has two threads that chronicle members starting their own bakeries. One of the threads followed every detail that went into building (physically) a Portland bakery, attracting a clientele and working through the first year of he business. Unfortunately, Criollo Bakery has now closed, but the level of detail and dedication that went into it was phenomenal and truly awe-inspiring for a would-be baker.

The second thread, a newer thread, follows a couple that moved from San Francisco to New Jersey with dreams of opening their own bakery. With pastry backgrounds, a generous relative who is happy to help them with accommodation, and a lot of hard work, they are just starting out on their journey to open The Sweet Life Bakery. So far, after only a couple of months, it sounds like they are really building up momentum. It's another interesting read, especially since it will be on-going as their journey progresses.

[via browniepoints]

Historians have recently made a claim that is rather upsetting to the British food community, disputing the origin of the famous Cornish pasty, a handheld pie usually filled with meat, for anyone unlucky enough to have missed out on them). It was long assumed to have originated in Cornwall, from where it takes its name. It turns out, according to Dr. Todd Gray, chairman of the Friends of Devon's Archives, that they actually originated in Devon.

Dr. Gray apparently discovered an historical document that references the making of pasties as early as 1510, while the first recipe of record in Cornwall didn't appear until 1746. As you might expect with any regional icon, emotions run high on the subject, especially for those in Cornwall. Most other experts, including that author of The Official Encyclopedia of the Cornish Pasty and the spokesman for the Cornish Pasty Association, seem to think that it would be nearly impossible to pinpoint the first instance of a pasty being made and, since pastry/bread vessels were fairly common "as early as the 1100s," the fact that there is a dated, "official" recipe for the modern pasty proves little about the actual origin.

The Art of the Tart: Savory and Sweet is the perfect book to illustrate the fact that tarts do not only have to be for dessert. Nor, according to author Tamasin Day-Lewis, do tarts have to be something you need special pastry skills to make, contrary to what you may have been told before. Tart crusts take some practice, but they use a simple technique and once you have that down, you are ready to bake any tart in the book though the crusts may call for different ingredients. Another benefit to getting the technique down is that you can make the tart dough in batches in advance, so you'll be prepared whenever you're feeling tart-y.

The tart recipes are creative, so even experienced tart-bakers will be able to find a few new recipes in here. Savory tarts include Porcini Mushroom and Red Onion and Spinach and Anchovy Tart, while the sweet tarts cover everything from a light Rhubarb Meringue Tart to a rich Chocolate Pecan Tart. The instructions are precise and easy to follow, and the impressive results are worth the time you'll invest in them.

There is a hierarchy in baked goods. It's not like I didn't know this before, but observations over the course of a week have completely proven this to me. And I've also concluded that lemon bars, no matter what, will always go last.

Our office received a tray of pastries every afternoon last week as snacks for our working group. The contents of the tray varied slightly each day, but there were always cookies, brownies and lemon bars. As you may have guessed, chocolate chip cookies barely lasted longer than it took for the delivery person to set the tray down. Oatmeal raisin cookies were gone next. Peanut butter cookies shared a distant third place with brownies. This happened every day. The same pattern, and with different people in the office, too.

Lemon bars were always last. In fact, sometimes, the delivery person who came to clean up the trays left with the tray with every single lemon bar still left.

Jin Patisserie is a pastry boutique in Venice, CA where you can coo and sigh over all the exquisite edible gems that come from Kristy Choo's kitchen. Though it is well known for its chocolates, you can nibble on other sorts of pretty little pastries. You can have a quiche and salad for lunch there. Tea is important at Jin, as it serves as a main flavoring in many of the cakes and chocolates, but you can also sit in the garden with a cup of tea and a scone.

Jin Patisserie
1202 Abbot Kinney Blvd.
Venice, CA 90291
(310) 399-8801
www.jinpatisserie.com

On occasion I will make a stop at a french bakery a few miles away to pick up something indulgent. In all honesty, I've had much better breads, but they do make a lovely array of pastries. One of their best is the brioche sucre. Brioche is a rich, yeast dough that has a high percentage of eggs and butter. Its buttery flavor is a great base for sweet pastry fillings, but the dough itself is not sweet and can be used for many savory applications, like wrapping brie for a hot, baked appetizer. These sweet buns, or sweet brioche, are a classic example of one of the sweet uses of the dough. The unbaked buns are topped with a thick coating of sugar that caramelizes and crisps during baking. The feather-light dough and the crisp sugar crust make this simple pastry a perfect breakfast treat.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]

For the longest time, the nutritional information available on the Starbucks website has only covered some of the most popular pastries, in addition to covering their entire drink menu. The problem with this is that many of the pastries are different from region to region. For example, Starbucks in Northern California are more likely to have Organic Banana Berry Muffins than in Southern California, and Starbucks in New York carry Black and White Cookies. It was possibly to obtain the information by calling their customer service center, but though it was a toll-free number, it often seemed like a lot of effort to find out the number of calories in a muffin. Recently, though, Starbucks revamped their on-site nutritional information. Now, you can input the zip code o the Starbucks you’re headed to and it will give you the nutritional information for all the pastries that they offer there. This will be great for anyone following a particular diet or simply wanting to watch what he or she eats, though I’m sure that some Starbucks patrons will probably happier not to know the fat content of their "low fat" Apricot Blueberry Muffin - which does not actually meet the federal guidelines for a  "low fat" item (under 3 grams of fat per serving), as Starbucks now shows that the muffin has 7 grams of fat.