I was at a newly opened Mexican bakery the other day, and I had a Concha for the first time in my life.

As soon as I saw it displayed at the shop, I remembered the melon buns.

(They are, however, quire different. The top of the concha is softer and almost melts in your mouth, but the top of the melon bun is definitely more crunchy and has the texture of shortbread cookies.)

Melon bun is extremely popular in Japan.

The name comes not so much from the flavor, but from the crunchy cookie top and soft bread inside.

People often decorate the surface with lines to make them look like a melon.

My mother used to make them all the time, and she actually made hers melon-flavored, but today many melon buns have various flavors.

Although I ate my mother’s melon buns a lot growing up, I never helped her making them.

This was my very first time making melon buns, and I won’t lie, I was a bit intimidated, mostly by the process where you make two parts, bread dough for inside and cookie dough for outside, and then put them together.

I made mine orange-flavored this time.

That is why you see the orange speckles in the cookie dough.

This was right before going into the oven.

Right out of the oven.

They turned out great.

You want crunchy outside and soft chewy inside.

And I think I was able to achieve that.

I found this recipe on one of the largest Japanese recipe sites, and I’m content with the result.

But next time I hope to make them with my mom’s recipe.

Hers had thicker cookie around the bread, and I wish to re-create that next time.