#bliss5

discovered these well-known little german cookies called zimtsterne (a.k.a. cinnamon stars or étoiles à la cannelle) at the famous Christmas markets in Colmar, France (near the German border) this past weekend and absolutely fell in love! my tastebuds were in absolute delight after the first bite as I had no idea it would be so deliciously chewy with just the perfect hint of cinnamon. cannot believe I was in the dark about these for so long as now I feel like Christmas baking will never be the same.

watch out everyone, new goal is to perfect these for next year and give them to all of those I love!

perhaps a little unappealing at first glance, the famous Portuguese pastel de nata is hands down the best tart I have ever had. 

but what is it exactly? a pastel de nata is a Portuguese egg tart pastry. small in size, but loaded with history. it is believed that pastéis de nata were created at the beginning of the 19th century by catholic monks at the Jerónimos Monastery in Belém (just outside of Lisbon) as a means of survival during the liberal revolution.

lucky for me I got to take my first bite at the original Pastéis de Belém bakery, which still to this day uses the same secret recipe.

bliss scale: 5/5 (yup it's true they're just that good)