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I’m not a huge fan of hot cross buns, but others in the family quite like them. Making your own allows you to decide what ingredients you include in the recipe. We found a recipe in Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes. Not being lovers of bought mixed peel we decided to go with glacé citrus peel and currants as a nice combination with the spices.

As our kitchen was taken over making these hot cross buns and profiteroles (post will follow shortly) all at the same time, we forgot to take photos of our mixture. This photo was taken after the dough has risen and is ready to cut into individual buns.

Once shaped and left to rise for an hour, you can then pipe the crosses onto the buns ready for baking. The mixture for the crosses is really nice, we used the left over to pipe shapes onto baking paper lined trays and cooked them until firm, Yum.

Once the buns are out of the oven you can apply the glaze to complete the hot cross buns and then leave to cool.

You can eat these straight from the oven or later on toasted, either way they were much nicer than those sold at the shops. 

 Hope you enjoy making and eating these as we did.

Hot Cross Buns

2014-04-16 13:16:01

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Ingredients

1. Sponge
2. 40g bread flour
3. 190g milk
4. 10g sugar
5. 7g yeast
6. Final dough
7. 340g bread flour
8. 60g butter, soft
9. 40g eggs
10. 60g sugar
11. 1/2 tablespoon salt
12. 1/2 tablespoon allspice, ground
13. 110g dried currants
14. 35g candied peel (I used glace)
15. Crossing Paste
16. 110g butter, melted
17. 85g milk
18. 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
19. 110g sugar
20. 1 Lemon, zest grated
21. 1/2 egg, beaten
22. 225g flour
23. Simple syrup
24. 1/4 cup sugar
25. 1/4 cup water

Instructions

1. 1. SPONGE
2. Disperse the yeast in the milk, add the flour and sugar; using a whisk mix until smooth.
3. Cover with plastic and let stand for 30 – 40 mins in a warm spot, when the sponge will have risen to about 3 or 4 times its original size.
4. 2. MIXING
5. Place the final dough ingredients in the mixing bowl; add the soft butter and using the dough hook mix until the butter is dispersed.
6. Add the eggs, sugar, salt and allspice, and mix them all together.
7. Next, add the sponge.
8. Mix on first speed for about 3 mins until everything is thoroughly combined.
9. Turn the mixer to second speed and mix for another 3 mins.
10. Add the currants and candied peel, mix until evenly distributed throughout the dough.
11. 3. BULK FERMENTATION
12. Place dough in a greased bowl.
13. Cover with cling film and let prove in a warm spot for 1 hour.
14. 4. DIVIDING AND SHAPING
15. Divide dough into 12 equal potions, roll into a ball and set on trays even distributed.
16. Cover with a clean towel or plastic wrap so crust doesn’t form.
17. 5. FINAL FERMENTATION
18. Prove for 1 hour in a warm spot.
19. 6. CROSSING PASTE
20. While the buns prove, make the crossing paste.
21. In a saucepan, melt the butter with the sugar until the sugar is dissolved.
22. Add the milk vanilla, grated lemon zest and beaten egg.
23. Whisk all together, then add the flour. Whisk until thickened.
24. Using a piping bag with a ¼ inch diameter round tip, fill the bag with the paste.
25. Pipe lines in one direction over every bun.
26. When all the lines have been piped in one direction, rotate the baking tray 90 degrees and pipe lines again so it forms a cross.
27. 7. SIMPLE SYRUP
28. Prepare the syrup by combining the sugar and water in a saucepan.
29. Bring to a boil stirring once or twice so the sugar wont burn on the bottom.
30. 8. BAKING
31. Bake the buns at 200C for 14-16 minutes.
32. As soon as they are removed from the oven, brush them with the syrup.
33. Cool on rack or eat straight away.

By Jeffrey Hamelman

Adapted from Bread A Baker's Book Of Techniques and Recipes

Adapted from Bread A Baker's Book Of Techniques and Recipes

Sweet Saffron Spice https://www.sweetsaffronspice.com/