Buns in the Oven

.. no no I am not pregnant. If I could I would. But I can’t, so I shan’t. Cause face it, I don’t have the eggs for it, just the sperms for it.

So after deviating from the topic let’s get back on track, focus Roddie focus (and this coming from a highly distracted mind). I meant to bake these buns for Good Friday (much like I wanted to write this last week but my lazy quarantined mind refused to do so), but with the lack of yeast and then time, had to postpone it by a day. So that meant I had my buns in the oven a day late (and once again I am not pregnant, and neither could I get my buns in the oven... get that head out of the gutter, will you!)

So after spending time to put together the ingredients, which meant a couple of trips to the grocery store. I know, I know, I shouldn’t have been doing this in the time of quarantine, but then my baking keeda got a better of the quarantined me. So read and re-read the recipe before I went to bed because it was baking day the next day.

Waking up early, I once again read the recipe, well not before before finishing my morning duty. Thank God for the weighing scales and measuring cups I didn’t have to figure out conversions. The first batch of yeast didn’t froth as the recipe said it should, so that had to be dispensed off, and another one had to be made in its place.

So now it was time to mix all ingredients together to make a dough. And boy was it sticky and icky, and to add to it the yeast mixture didn’t smell so pleasant. So after some much needed kneading the dough came together, but it wasn’t as smooth as the recipe said it should be (which I realised a little later, cause you see I was following the recipe to the tee). So the the dough was set aside to rest, with a hope that it would rise on Holy Saturday and not wait till Easter Sunday to rise with the Lord. 

While the dough was resting and rising, I decided to get myself a quick workout, cause face it this lazy ass butt needs to be active or it would turn into a slob. So as I worked out I kept my eye on the dough, which to my delight was doubling, much like our days in quarantine (and not like our other dough).

After waiting for the sufficient time for the dough to rest and rise, it was time to add the plums to it, and to let it rest for an hour longer. Damn this was one lazy dough, it had already rested for over two hours and this poor pseudo baker was still slaving away.

Once the dough was sufficiently rested, it was time to roll it into logs and make your buns and let it rest once again (not again, this poor baker needed to rest more than these buns). But now came the tricky, sticky part. The dough was still pretty sticky, and icky, sticking to the poor thala, needing to kneaded with both hands and the knees to hold it down, which only caused the thala to lift off every time you needed to turn the dough. So in the end every part your body ended up taking part in the kneading exercise. Due to their stickiness, they didn’t roll well and formed uneven loaves.

So finally the loaves of buns were made, and blessed with the cross, the oven had to be preheated for the buns to go in. Once the oven was hot enough, much like the temperature outside, in went the buns. As the buns baked this pseudo chef kept an excited eye on them baking, ok an excited pair of eyes on them, taking in the whiff, the aroma as the buns slowly baked, and turned somewhat a golden brown. Once they were finally baked, after the designated time, and then some more, took them out off the oven and let them cool down, applying a bit of, ok make that a generous spread of jam on it.

So yipeee the buns were finally done. They weren’t too pretty to looks at, but were pretty good for me. So I looked at my buns with great pride (the baked ones and not the back ones, though I proud of those too) .

Now since I don’t have any daughter, nor do I have a son, my mother gave it to her son (no guessing who it was). Though it was bit dense and not as light as it should be, it was not bad attempt. And it tasted, well all I can say it was edible. So I can say I was successful at baking some decent hot cross buns!