Le P'tit Atelier

Bakery: Le P'tit Atelier 
Address: 93 Rachel O, Montreal QC
Website: facebook
Style: Canadian, French 
Price: $$ 

I randomly chanced upon this bakery where "small" isn't just in the name: this cute, tiny patisserie, with perhaps room for three diners and a little display case of all their goodies, is certainly not the largest in town, but nonetheless offers a selection of all the classic French baked goods (croissants, chocolatines) in addition to petite tarts, notably of the maple and lemon variety, a few cookies and smaller snacks, and why not throw in some hot cross buns?

I had one of my favourite Quebec bakery staples: the chausson aux pommes ($2.80). Beautifully crafted pastry with flaky, buttery dough that was flavourful and delicious upon that first bite, but I soon came to realize why my bag felt strangely empty -- so much so that as I was carrying back I kept thinking it was actually the apple cake sliver from another bakery done that day, because I simply couldn't associate something so lightweight with an apple-filled pastry: where were the apples?

It was just so... hollow and I'd never had a hollow chausson sans pommes before, so I don't think it was meant to be like this (and if it was, then it wasn't very exciting). No, really, I tried to solve the mystery and found the culprit: a decent-sized hole underneath which I assume aided in the escape of the apple filling. There were signs of it along the bottom and it tasted good, but no usual sauce and no apple chunks in case it was a chunkier filling -- just a bit of moisture and flavour in an otherwise empty shell. :( I don't know what happened....

Rating: **