Shortbreads, Sweet Buns and Christmas Wishes

Baking been missing for a while from my routine until just two weeks ago when I felt the itch to bake something. Since I have all the ingredients anyway, I decided to try making shortbreads. The ingredient and recipe are pretty simple. I was calling them shortcakes but I think shortbreads and shortcakes are different. A little googling and here we found the difference. So the correct name for what I made is shortbreads. The trick here is the temperature and the length of time you bake them. Too hot and too long, they become too dry or burnt (like biscuits). So I have to make a few attempts to get the correct texture, a little soft inside and not too hard outside. They should still look white and not too brown. I made some tortoise shaped and heart shaped ones.

Then last week, I saw the facebook entry of my colleague's on his wife's Japanese-Style Sweet Bun, I had to try it. So a little googling got me to this recipe. It turned out to be a success and the process was not too complicated. Only problem I faced was that my mixer couldn't handle the dough and I ended up kneading with my hands almost entirely. I was doing this at night and the yeast had no problem doubling my dough much faster than that was stated in the recipe. That's the advantage of living in the tropics! The buns were really soft in texture, however, I think the buns were not sweet enough, I will need to put in a little more sugar next time. You can even add in fillings to these buns if you want, so I think I will be trying this recipe again soon, maybe add some variation to it.

Christmas is just around the corner, still a little more shopping to go. I am hopeful that we will get half day off on Chirstmas Eve cause I did not take any leave pre-Christmas, saving my leave for school re-opening. My sis-in-law will be having eating party on the eve at her house, I do not know yet if I will prepare something to bring over there. But Christmas is not about eating and presents and parties.... We have gone through the (annual) penitential duties and we will be attending the Christmas eve Mass and the Christmas day Mass too. I had previously posted this on my facebook, the Advent Consipracy. It is a different perspective of Christmas, the correct prespective. Have a Blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year. Peace be with you.