This time last year, we had a cake feast.

Now, for this weekend, it's going to be Bread Galore! And it's because we have a pack of bread flour that's expiring in 2 weeks. Again.

Today, I made Chocolate Wassants. Cinnamon rolls should be rolling out tomorrow. Plus a loaf of bread maybe? Must must must finish the flour this weekend since I'm planning to put on my mugger glasses next week.

On this very Good Friday, I woke up as the sun starting shining in. Instead of going for a run, I decided to start on the chocolate spread. So by 8.45am, I was slaving over the kitchen stove , and wondering why the chocolate spread was so lumpy. Ding dong ding dong - the butter! It was still on the table-top! But then I was just done spreading the chocolate on a cling wrap and I wasn't going to reheat and spread the chocolate again (it took me forever to do it 'cause the cling wrap is so clingy!), so I just plonked it into the fridge anyway.

Bread dough next. I was picking out the ingredients needed when I realised that the yeast we had at home had expired in September last year. Kind sister T offered to get them for me but she only came back around 2pm. So in the meantime, I ate, slept, watched some old crappy show and came online - anything but do serious work.

You know how bread doughs need lots of kneading. I thought my at-least-10-year-old mixer could handle the stress, or at least the first part of it (about 10 minutes). Clearly not. My grandfather mixer lasted just 5 minutes on low, before it got so warm I decided I'd better not risk it because I didn't want it to die. But I forgot to flour the board and my hands before kneading, so the dough stuck to the board as my hands stuck to the dough and the board kept moving and hitting against everything at its side - irritating!

So for the second part of the kneading, I decided to pop the dough back into the mixing bowl and Sister T offered to help me with the mixer. After about 3 minutes, she stopped it. I was like, "Never mind, just try a little bit more", but just 5 seconds into it and oh my goodness! It started to smoke! My grandfather mixer obviously couldn't tahan anymore, so hands it is and I stretched, pulled, pushed the dough for the next 15 minutes. I could actually feel drops of perspiration forming on my forehead as my hands worked the dough!

Finally it was time to let the dough rest and rise. I went back after an hour and yay - I see a bulge under the damp towel! Good sign! When I lifted the towel, I was wowed! The dough which only filled less than half the pot initially was now in full bloom! The recipe said "punch the air out", so I did and the air came out with an audible Plop! Awww... So satisfying!

Then it was just rolling out the dough and spreading the chocolate and rolling again and cutting into mini triangles to roll again. And yes, rest for 50 minutes again. Yeast stuff need too much rest, really!

After all that resting, they were finally ready to be pushed into the oven. But just as I was leaving the kitchen, I remembered about the egg wash! So I scrambled to scramble the egg and paint the wassants. Now, they are finally really ready to be baked! Yayness!

It was simply ooo la la as the aroma of the bread wafted through the house. Nice! Very nice! How great it'd be to wake up to the smell of freshly-baked bread every morning! I tell Mom we should get a breadmaker, because all we have to do is to measure out the ingredients, dump them in (Yes, no more kneading by hand!) and out comes a loaf of yummy bread without the preservatives, in the exact flavour we want, right when we want it. Easy and fuss-free!

My products of love turned out awesome! They had a crispy crust, but the insides were soft and fluffy! With a slab of butter, the wassants were oh-so-sinful but delicious! Perfect for tomorrow's breakfast!