Love Letter: Gail’s Christmas Buns

I adore Christmas for all the fun with friends and family, but of course what I really love is the food. So, so much wonderful food. There are so many evocative smells and flavours at xmas, and I adore working my way through my list of favourite must-eat treats from my annual super-sweet Starbucks Toffee Nut Latte to the classic Pret Christmas sandwich (the best out there fyi). Each and every one gets me excited about the holiday season and the big day itself.

Over the last few years there’s been a recent edition to my Christmas obsession are Gails Christmas buns. Around mid-November these amazing brioche buns hit the shelves I feel almost evangelical about them all the way up until Christmas, when it’s time to think about them until the following November. You’d think Gail’s was my bakery the way I push these delights onto anyone within earshot.

They’re brioche swirls filled with frangipane; that sweet almond sweet pastry cream that is subtly festive and aromatic. Alongside the frangipane there’s tiny chocolate chips that add just enough sweetness, a touch of cinnamon but not so much it feels like a cinnamon roll. They’re topped with a vanilla and orange icing which gives off the most perfect Christmas scent. I could eat a hundred and it would never be too many because as soon as Christmas passes I can’t have one for another 10 months and my desire for them is refreshed.

Until next November…