Hot Cross Buns

Hot cross buns, hot cross buns, one a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns. You're lucky you can't hear me singing that! I'm not the best of singers. I hope I'm a better baker than I am singer, I think I am. Anyway, I decided that I would make my own hot cross buns this year for Good Friday. I'm not someone who eats these all year round even though they are available in the supermarket regardless of when Easter is.

I did a quick online search for recipes and came across this one from The Times online archive. Having looked at a few other recipes I decided that life was too short to peel my own lemon, orange and lime so I bought some Italian mixed peel instead. I also chose to use 150g of wholemeal strong bread flour and mix it with 300g of white strong bread flour to give it a bit more flavour.

They were surprisingly easily to make, just a spiced bread dough with fruit really and then of course, there is the cross on top. I'm sure Mr VST asks every year "How do they make the cross?" and this year I could answer him! It is a surprisingly easy, just a sugar, flour and water paste.

The dough was very sticky and I kneaded a lot of flour into it. I would probably use 500g of flour next time. The recipe also suggested, and I followed it, breaking the dough into 12 and then leaving the buns to rise. I would just leave the whole lot to rise and then divide it up afterwards as they didn't rise very well. 

It was too late to make the glaze so I just brushed them with milk before putting them into the oven. They were a little on the heavy side I thought. Mr VST had one pretty much straight from the oven, un-toasted, and enjoyed it. I had one toasted for breakfast and it was surprisingly good. My boss had one un-toasted and said it was a bit on the heavy side. We will be finishing them off, toasted, for breakfast tomorrow. I think I would add a bit more spice and I might be tempted to make them again before next Easter.