If your anything like the average student who enrolls in one of the pastry courses taught by Helen Fletcher as she travels around the country, then you're absolutely petrified of making pastry. Don't feel bad, she understands, and she has more than a few tips for combating the fear and intimidation that she says takes hold of people when they're faced with the opportunity to try their hand at brioche, pie crusts or complicated-looking cakes.

In a reassuring voice, and with an unbridled enthusiasm, Helen advises her students not to let their fears get the best of them. "You wouldn't cross the street," she says, "if you thought about it as long as some people think about the difficulties of pastry."

Okay, so the only thing to fear is fear itself. But, we ask, "Helen, wouldn't even you feel a little apprehensive about a croissant recipe with an estimated preparation time of 18 to 36 hours?"

Her answer, thank heavens, is "Yes."

As a young woman Helen watched her Yugoslavian mother and grandmother spend whole days in the kitchen creating a single dessert. "I can't do today what they did then," she says. "Everybody has a premium on their time. I couldn't find that kind of time now."

That's why Helen began to rewrite pastry recipes and, through much trial and error, make even the most complex one less time consuming and easier to follow.

How does she do it?

In her classes, Helen tries to keep students open-minded about pastry, which she loosely defines as any dough-sweet or savory-that contains flour. (She rejects the classic "narrow" definition of the word, which she says only conjures up complicated French desserts.) "Pastry encompasses an awful lot. I can start people off with something like a short almond pastry that's almost fool-proof. If you don't want to roll our the dough, you can press it into the pan. There are some very simple pastry recipes." Those that are not so simple have been demystified thanks to Helen's "secret techniques."

For instance, keeping the butter and flour from combining when mixing a croissant dough was difficult for novice bakers. Helen's solution is to freeze the butter and use a food processor to "cut up" but not blend it into the flour mixture. The result is a delicate flaky buttery croissant.

A homemaker until 1978, Helen started her career in the food business after attending dozens of courses at a St. Louis hotel and restaurant school. In 1982 she worked as a consultant for Cuisnarts and in 1986 authored THE NEW PASTRY COOK (Morrow), a book of European-style pastries that have been "Fletcherized."

Today Helen's time is taken up with teaching, writing magazine articles and running a wholesale food business. She is again making pastry more convenient for the home cook bky offering a line of mail order baked goods. Under the banner Truffes, Inc., she sells six different kinds of European-style cookies and a Panforte di Sienna with freshly candied lemon and orange peel. In time, the line will include chocolates.

"I've noticed that here are people who enjoy eating more than cooking, and these high-quality cookies and cakes are for them." Better-quality ready-made foods, she things are the wave of the future. "I don't know of a Greek or Yugoslavian woman alive today who still makes her own phyllo dough," she says, "because the commercial variety is so good."

Much of Helen's recipe experimentation now focuses on super simple preparation for busy cooks. One example is a tart made with a high-quality coconut cookie crumb crust, cored and halved pears and a simple semisweet chocolate glaze. "It's delicious," she says "and you don't even bake it."

The Charlotte Royale which Helen created for this issue's Cooking Class feature is a sophisticated bombe that looks as though only a seasoned professional could have put it together. Don't be fooled. This dessert is really three separate simple desserts that are combined to create a masterpiece.

Hazelnut spongecake is spread with an intense chocolate raspberry truffle filling, rolled to form a jelly roll and then cut into slices which are used to line a Bavarian mold. A rich hazelnut chocolate ice cream that is enhanced with a bit of orange is spread inside the lined mold. Finally, the bombe is filled with a raspberry mousse. When cut, each slice of the Charlotte Royale is a feast for the eyes, showing a layer of mousse and a layer of ice cream nestled against a swirled cake shell.

The perfect accompaniment? Helen suggests a glass of semi-sec champagne. And a toast to your skill as a fearless and accomplished pastry chef.

Recipes included in this article:

• Charlotte Royale