Hot Cross Buns
The most English Easter thing of them all are the Hot Cross Buns. They are nice and sweet, but not too much. Their taste resembles a bit of the Eastern-European 'kozunak' that is served for Easter, but they are more moderate in taste. Again, I wanted to challenge my cooking skills more than to do the Christian tradition, but it was fun.
Ingredients:
For the Buns:
- 625gr All-Purpose Flour
- 1tsp Salt
- 1tsp Cinnamon
- 1/2tsp All Spice
- 1/2tsp Ground Nutmeg
- 45gr Butter (made into cubes)
- 85gr Icing Sugar
- 1 Lemon's Zest
- 1 1/2tsp Yeast
- 1/2 Baking Powder
- 1 Egg
- 275ml Milk (room temperature)
- 1 cup Dried Fruit (I used raisins and dried cranberries)
For the Hot Cross:
- 1tsp Flour
- 1tsp Icing Sugar
- 1tsp Water
- 1tsp Golden Syrup
For the Glaze:
- 1tbsp Honey
How-To:
- Sift the flour with the salt and the spices. Add the butter and mix them together. It's best to do so by hand, mixers won't just do the job. It should resemble small breadcrumbs.
- Add the lemon zest and the sugar, and mix together again.
- Mix the egg and the milk together and pour it in the flour mixture. Knead it together until nice and even. Knead in the dried fruit.
- Let to rise for 1 hour and a half, covered with clean kitchen towel.
- When the rising is done make the dough into small balls and place on a baking paper.
- Put in warm (around 50C) oven for another good 15-20 minutes.
- Mix all of the ingredients for the Hot Cross together, place it in a clean piping bag with a small nozzle.
- After the second rising make a small cross on top of each bun.
- Bake for 13 minutes and then take out of the oven and smear with some unsalted butter.
- Put again in the oven for another 3-4 minutes.
- Take out of the oven and spread some honey on top of them. Let them cold down for a bit and enjoy with some warm milk or your favourite tea.
 |
| Easter Yummy! |
You can't get lost if you don't know where you're going...
