Oh, wow!  I just had the most amazing treat. They’re from a company called Un Petit Morceau and they’re called Bouboulettes.  They’re not exactly like anything else.

What exactly is a “bouboulette?”  OK, they’re sort of like the love-child of a shortbread cookie and a petit-four. Maybe a great-uncle is a Madeleine and a step great-aunt might be a raspberry Aebleskiver.  They’re beautifully-decorated little squares of yum.

They’re the size and shape of petit-fours, but they’re incredibly delicate and ethereal.  One nibble and they kind of crumble into your mouth.  At the center of each is a tiny gob of something wonderful.

The flavors –four of them — are very hip/creative but subtle.   Which is my favorite?  Hmmm.  Let’s see…

There’s the lemon basil, whose scent reaches you ahead of the cookie, but is actually very nuanced.  There’s the lavender-plum with Earl Grey tea – so much fun to see the flecks of tea in the cookie.  The chocolate-cherry chipotle was delish, although I couldn’t detect the chipotle notes.  But I think my fave is the ginger-rosemary, which for some odd reason reminded me of what an apricot rugelach might have been if it had been a debutante and gone to finishing school instead of growing up barefoot on the streets.

They’re as special as a really fine bakery-shop pastry, but their small size lets you treat them like cookies.  They also seem very adaptable.  They seemed to go great with a short glass of very cold milk, and then later, they were superb with a cup of tea.  I suspect that they might not object to keeping company with a dry red wine, but I’ll leave that to the oenophiles.

How often do you come across an entirely new category of confections?  They’re beautiful and decadent but seem so light and airy that they don’t make you feel guilty.  “Bouboulette,” by the way, is a French term of endearment meaning “little fatty.”    A very cute, fat little bird (pigeon??) graces the description.

They are the creation of Nana Visitor (yes, that Nana Visitor – the actress best known for playing Kira Nerys on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine).  Although Un Petit Morceau is located in New Mexico, they arrived in Connecticut in the middle of August in perfect shape.

Come over here, my little Bouboulette; sit next to me, baby.  I think we’re going to get along just fine.

Check out Un Petit Morceau here: http://www.unpetitmorceau.com/