Hot Cross Buns

Scary as it is, Easter is only a few weeks away. Actually, I don't think it's scary at all and am pretty pleased, as despite having only been back from Melbourne for three weeks and getting an extra hour of sleep this weekend I am ready for a long weekend. Such a shame Anzac Day couldn't be on the Tuesday to make it five days long, though...

Anyway, the approaching holiday means hot cross bun time - what could be better than spiced bread, fresh from the oven and slathered with butter?

Hot cross buns are pretty easy to make, but they are one of those things you have to plan ahead for - there are wait times of 10 minutes + 60 minutes + 30 minutes + 25 minutes - so if, like us, you put off starting until 7.30pm you'll probably go to bed bloated, since once they're ready the whole house will smell delicious and you won't be able to stop eating them. 

The first step is activating the yeast, and I don't know what it is but sometimes mine goes frothy and sometimes it doesn't - this time it didn't. The buns were fine, though, so apparently that's not a cause for concern. Once the yeast has been sitting in its milk bath for a while you beat in the eggs and butter. The way I do it the resulting mixture looks awful - lumpy and gross - but it doesn't really matter, you're just trying to break up the butter and mix the yeast evenly through the wet stuff. Once you add it into the flour mixture it'll all smooth out. 

When you've got a dough - you will need to get your hands dirty to get everything incorporated and smooth - you add your fruit. You can do whatever you like - we actually split our dough and made half with raisins (for Mr Cake) and half with chocolate (for me). You can increase or decrease the amount you add depending how fruity or not you like them, and put whatever dried fruit you like in the mix. We just used raisins but a mixture is nice, though I recommend steering clear of that nasty mixed peel stuff that always ruins the store-bought variety. ;-) (I guess some people must like it, since it's so commonly used, but I can't remember ever hearing anyone admit to it)

After a couple of phases of rising - first in the bowl and then on the tray once you've made the dough into buns (bonus points if your teatowel is as appropriate as ours!) it's time to make them cross. 

I just used a paste - a little melted butter, flour, baking powder and milk - to make my crosses, though I read somewhere recently that if you half cook the buns and then put strips of almond icing on them before finishing them you get a sticky almondy cross, which sounds tastier than this way. I'll be trying that next time!

I just add milk until I get the consistency I want - basically, as thick as possible, but you have to be able to squeeze it out of a piping bag, so unless you have lots more muscle than me you'll still need the milk. ;-)

If you plan ahead and place the buns closer together (they only rise a little in the oven) you can just pipe the crosses as lines, but I'm not that clever. You could also be more creative - I see Hell Pizza are offering buns with an inverted pentagram on top of them, which sort of goes against the sentiment of Easter but I guess seems more fitting for their brand... 

They are definitely at their best straight from the oven, but reheated (in the microwave if you're too impatient, or the oven if you need that crispy toasted goodness) they are good the next day too. And I bet they'd make a delicious bread pudding if you didn't manage to get through them all in time...

What's your favourite way to have hot cross buns? Do you like the traditional ones, peel and all? A lighter fruit version? Or are you a complete non-traditionalist like me and go for the chocolate version? 

Hot Cross Buns
Ingredients
4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp each of mixed spice, cinnamon and nutmeg
¼ cup brown sugar
1 ½ tsp yeast
1 cup milk, warmed
100g butter, softened
2 eggs
1 cup mixed dried fruit or chocolate, chopped into small pieces (optional)
Paste for crosses
½ cup flour
1 Tbsp butter
¼ tsp baking powder
Milk

Blend flour, salt, spices and brown sugar. Stir yeast and warm milk together and leave to stand for 15 minutes in a warm place. Beat eggs and softened butter into the yeast mix, then add to dry ingredients and fruit, and mix until at a dough consistency (add a little extra flour if too sticky). Place dough in a greased bowl and leave covered in a warm place for an hour to rise.

Turn onto a floured board and divide into 16 portions, rolling into balls and placing on a greased oven tray. Cover with a tea towel and leave in a warm place for another 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 190 C. Brush each bun with milk. Mix extra flour, butter and baking powder and just enough milk to make a paste and pipe crosses on top. Bake 20-25 minutes.