yatsuhashi.八ツ橋

you ate this when you're at kyoto before. you had both the raw (nama) and baked (yaki) version. you had this recipe for many years but it never occurs to you to give it a try until you sorted out the cookies recipes and found it.

 you decided to do a trail batch with cinnamon flavor. the steps are simple and doable, but the outcome is ugly and too much air pockets caught in the cookies.  as such it's a fail batch with only a few crunchy ones and you find this way too sweet to your liking.

and the next day, you give the recipe another go... reduced the sugar and replaced the flavoring to japanese green tea (matcha), extend the baking time and let them cool down in the oven. this is a satisfactory batch. they are crisp and crunchy just like the ones you ate in kyoto albeit not as pretty as the store bought version.

you will bake more when the festive season is approaching and you already have in mind what flavors and shapes you will do with your yaki yatsuhashi.