Being completely obsessed with anything dessert, I took advantage of our European adventure to visit some pretty neat pastry shops in Spain and enjoy their traditional and not-so traditional treats. I can honestly say that given better ingredients, North American desserts would be on par with what I tried in many of these places. However, our butters aren’t nearly as fatty, our chocolate isn’t created with the same cocoa butter to sugar to milk solid ratio and our fruits aren’t nearly as flavourful so regardless of our skills with the execution, European dessert trump most of what is found on our continent.
My favourite pastry shop by far was Bubo in Barcelona for its sheer creativity and flavour combinations. It’s located in the heart of the Born district of the city and has both a pastry shop and a tapas bar in the same square. It has outstanding packaging which is a must for a any great patisserie (in my eyes anyways). The rest of the pastry shops included the world famous Escriba (located right on Ramblas), the Hoffman School of Pastry, the Chocolate Museum and many more.
