On the 25th day of the course I went snowboarding in France with friends. It was an amazing day in the snow, and we had a lot of fun. Because of the trip I missed the final assignment of the fourth module, but I still wanted to complete it, so I finished the work at home.
The assignment required making four types of friandises. Friandises are small pastries typically served after dessert alongside coffee or tea at restaurants. I decided to give mine a unifying theme and chose The Netherlands. For the set I made mini apricot bavarois, mini orange meringues (orange being the national color associated with the Dutch royal family and used at many celebrations), red, white, and blue macarons reflecting the colors of the Dutch flag, and mini apple pies—because a good Dutch apple pie is hard to beat.
Everything turned out well overall. The macarons were the one element I felt could be improved, but the friandises not only looked appealing, they tasted delicious too. I served them to my family, and everyone enjoyed them.