Hot cross buns

Easter weekend was fairly spring-like in O-town. The weather certainly wasn't as warm as our pre-taste of summer from a few weeks ago, but there was still enough sun to coax us outside.

We headed to the Experimental Farm for a walk about on Sunday. The parking lot was teeming with mini-vans full of families there to see the new lambs and baby calves inside the barn. But we stuck to the gardens, where not much was in bloom, but we entertained ourselves spotting the new green shoots on the lilac trees, and the yellow daffodils emerging from the dirt.

Below, my extremely un-horiticultural report of some of the things we saw.


Some pink magnolia (?) ready to bloom.

Bright yellow branches.

Teeny leaves ready to pop. (I'd better prepare to for the onslaugh of offers to write for gardening magazines after those descriptions!)

Before we set out on our walk, we fuelled up on a lunch of hot cross buns. Why lunch, you ask? I had initially planned to have the buns for breakfast, and in fact prepared Nigella's recipe the night before, leaving it in the fridge overnight to rise. When I got up Sunday morning, eagerly hoping to find a bowl of fluffly, fruit-studded dough to greet me, what I instead discovered was a hard lump of dough no bigger than when I left it the night before. Nigella Easter fail!

So, Jamie Oliver to the rescue. This recipe is from his magazine, published at Easter last year. It was quick to pull together, and most importantly, resulted in some buns we could actually eat. They were delicious warm from the oven, and nice the next day as well, toasted and spread with butter. I used dried fruit I had on hand, which included a mix of raisins, cranberries and candied ginger.

Hot cross buns
From Jamie Magazine

• 50g sugar
• 7g sachet dried yeast
• 450g flour
• 2 tsp mixed spice
• 100g mixed dried fruit (currants, sour cherries, sultanas)
• 25g chopped mixed peel
• Zest of 1 orange
• 1 egg, beaten
• 50g butter, melted
• 50ml milk, warmed

Decoration
• 100g flour mixed with about 50ml water to make a dough, or 100g readymade shortcrust pastry

Sticky glaze
• 2 tbsp sugar
• Juice of 1 orange
• 1 egg, beaten

1. Mix 1 teaspoon of the sugar with the yeast and 150ml tepid water in a jug until frothy.

2. Sift the flour, 1 teaspoon of salt and the mixed spice into a large bowl, then add the dried fruit, peel, orange zest and remaining sugar. Make a well in the middle and pour in the yeast mixture, then add the beaten egg, melted butter and 40ml warmed milk. Using a fork or wooden spoon, stir in a circular motion until you have a dough. Add a little more milk if the dough is too dry.

3. Place the dough on a clean surface dusted with flour and knead until it is smooth and glossy, about 5 minutes. Place the dough in a large mixing bowl and cover with a clean, damp tea towel. Leave in a warm place to prove until it has doubled in size, about 1 hour, then knock it back and knead again to its original size. Divide the dough into 12 evenly sized pieces and shape into round buns. Place on a lightly greased baking tray, spaced well apart. Cover with a damp tea towel and leave to rise again until doubled in size, about 35–40 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 220C/gas 7. For the decoration, place the dough or shortcrust pastry on a clean surface dusted with flour and roll into a sausage about 1cm thick. Cut the sausage in half, and cut each half into 6 pieces. Roll out each piece again to make 2 thinner, 5mm strips of about 8cm long. You should have 24 strips in total. Brush the risen buns with the beaten egg and lay the dough strips on top in the shape of a cross. Brush with the beaten egg and bake for 15 minutes, or until golden.

5. Meanwhile for the glaze, place the sugar and juice in a pan and gently heat until the sugar is dissolved and the syrup is bubbling.

6. Brush the buns with the glaze and eat immediately, or cool and serve toasted.

Hot Cross Buns

Happy Easter! This has been one of the warmest weekends on record, with temperatures pushing 30 degrees here in the nation's capital. Today was a bit cooler, and tomorrow's calling for rain, but still, we're pretty lucky -- especially those of us fortunate enough to get a four-day weekend.

As much as I'm enjoying the nice weather, I think the plants outside are liking it more. I can practically see the leaves growing on my trees, and there are new snowdrops appearing almost by the minute.

So, what, you might ask, was I doing inside baking on such a gorgeous day?

Well, let me remind you that it was a bit cooler today, and I was up early, the buns don't take much time to make -- and hey, what's Easter without Hot Cross Buns anyway?

Now, I haven't always been a fan of these springtime buns. I think the dislike stems back to childhood, when I can remember being in Toronto and getting some buns from a bakery, biting into one, and finding a toothpick baked inside, which then got lodged into the roof of my mouth. Ouch, right? Between that scarring experience and years of medicore store-bought buns, it took a while to rekindle an affection for Hot Cross Bun.

But then I stumbled across the yummy and easy recipe from Donna Hay. Her version creates fragrant, soft buns that aren't too sweet and are sastifying to put together.

Here's how they start....

Mixing up the flour and spices. The recipe calls for mixed spice, so I threw in some nutmeg (1tsp), ground ginger, allspice, ground cardamon and a dask of ground cloves. This recipe really is a good excuse to delve into your spice rack and get creative.

Next comes the dried fruit. The recipe calls for sultanas and candied peel, the latter of which I didn't have. I used raisins, currants and some chopped dried apricot.

Here's the dough after kneading, all oiled up and ready for a rest.


And here it is about an hour later. I let it rise inside the microwave, into which I placed a mug of water, heated on high for one minute. With the door closed, it's a veritable steam bath for the mound of dough!

And here are the finished beauties, fresh out of the oven and drenched in glaze. I was a bit heavy handed with the old crosses, but I figure that makes me extra religious, right?

And here's the one I took from the batch. Can you see the juicy rasins and delicately spiced texture? How about the butter ever so slightly melting into the warmth? Apologies for the blurry photo, but I was in too much of a hurry to devour this.

Hot Cross Buns
From Modern Classics 2 by Donna Hay

2 tablespoons dried yeast*
¼ cup (55g) caster (superfine) sugar
1½ cups (375ml) warm milk
4¼ cups (635g) plain (all-purpose) flour
2 teaspoons mixed spice
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
50g butter, melted
1 egg
¼ cup (55g) caster (superfine) sugar, extra
1½ cups (240g) sultanas
⅓ cup (55g) candied mixed peel, optional

Crosses
½ cup (75g) plain (all-purpose) flour
⅓ cup (80ml) water

Glaze
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon powdered gelatine
¼ cup (60ml) water
*this isn't the same recipe as in the book, but as the book makes too much glaze, I'd suggest using this one instead. I didn't have any powdered gelatine, so I used a leaf,

Combine the yeast, sugar and milk in a bowl. Set aside for 5-10 minutes or until bubbles form on the surface.

Combine the flour, mixed spice, cinnamon, butter, egg, extra sugar, sultanas, mixed peel and yeast mixture in a large bowl. Mix with a butter knife until a sticky dough forms. Knead on a lightly floured surface for 5–10 minutes or until it feels smooth and elastic when pressed. Place in an oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel and stand in a warm place for 30–40 minutes or until doubled in size.

Lightly knead the dough again, divide into 12 pieces and roll into balls. Place in a 23cm-square cake tin lined with non-stick baking paper. Cover with a clean tea towel and set aside in a warm place for 25–30 minutes or until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 375ºF. To make the crosses, combine the flour and water to make a smooth paste. Place in a piping bag** and pipe crosses onto the buns. Bake for 30–35 minutes or until well browned and springy to touch.

To make the glaze, combine the sugar, gelatine and water in a saucepan over medium heat and stir for 2 minutes or until dissolved. Brush warm buns with the glaze and serve with butter. Makes 12.

* You will need this amount of yeast because of the amount of sugar in the recipe.
** To make a piping bag, fill a ziplock bag with the cross mixture and snip off one corner.