Hot Cross Buns

The best Hot Cross Buns in Town, they were soft, served warm and buttered, so delicious. I am proud to say, this is my first attempt to bake the buns.  What you need are right ingredients, plain flour, yeast, sugar, dried fruit, butter, egg, milk and spices, I am sure they are readily available in anyone pantry.

After a few hours working in the garden, I still had more energy to do baking, a simple and healthy pizza for the family dinner, and the hot cross buns that I mentioned before.      

The Pizza

Indeed we had lots of bread tonight but fresh fruits afterwards.

Recipe for you if you wish to try to bake,  it is not hard and is also inexpensive.  In fact, you could bake some batches to freeze to be ready for Easter.

Hot Cross Buns

Ingredients

325 g plain flour
125 g mixed dried fruits
1/3 cup brown sugar
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon mixed spices (cinnamon, clove and nutmeg)

10 g dried yeast
150 ml warm milk
33 g melted butter
1 egg (lightly beaten)

A paste for the cross
50 g flour
100 ml of water
The glace
2 tablespoon caster sugar
2 tablespoon water
(mix and heat it up until the sugar dissolves)

Method
I use the kitchen aid for mixing.

1. In a small bowl mix the yeast with the warm milk.
2. In a large bowl of the KitchenAid mixer, put the flour, salt, spices, sugar, egg, and melted butter, mix gently and add in the yeast mixture.  Continue mixing for 3 minutes to make a smooth dough,  add in the dried fruits and mix together gently for a few seconds.
3. Take the dough out of the bowl, place on a floured board and knead it until very smooth and elastic about five minutes.  Place the dough on an oiled bowl, cover and put in a warm place to prove until double in bulk, about one hour and a half.
4. Punch the dough down, knead lightly, now the money is ready for shaping.
5. Shape into 10, about 80 g each ball, and place them side by side on buttered pan.
6. Cover with a clean cloth, set aside in a warm place to prove for 45 minutes or until doubled in size
7. To make the paste, and decorate:  mix the flour and water until smooth, place the paste mixture onto a paper bag, cut one corner of it.  Pipe crosses onto the buns.
8. Bake the buns in a preheated oven at 175 degrees C  (fan-forced oven) for 16 minutes
9. Reduce oven to 160 degrees C, and bake for 9 minutes further or until golden brown.
10. (please adjust the temperature of the oven as every oven is different)
11. Transfer the buns to a wire rack, glace the buns with the sugar glaze while the buns are still warm.    Now you have 10 glossy hot cross buns to enjoy.

The Baking

Pipe crosses onto the buns before baking (sorry no photo).  Freshly baked hot cross buns.

 Glace the buns while they are warm, then transfer onto a wire rack to cool.

The Presentation and Serving

Soft, Sticky and Glossy Hot Cross Buns

It is worth the trouble if it is.  Believe you me, it is easily achievable.  The other day Rayner did research about hot cross buns in our town, which bakery offers the best hot cross buns?.  He found it, but it is somewhere in Melbourne.  I thought . . . . . Forget it!!! It is not our town, in fact, we have to drive to go there and it will take us tow hours.

For that reason, he made me try to bake the buns myself, and I did it. I believe it is the best hot cross buns in town.  I think Rayner was pleased for me, and he loved the buns too.

Phillipa's hot cross buns are available in Traralgon, but they are far too expensive for me.  We are happy enough with our own baking, and we could enjoy them while the buns were warm, freshly baked in our kitchen and even better as they cost nothing, I got all ingredients from our pantry.

Enjoy the recipe to try and happy baking.

Until Next Post

Thanks For Visiting

Susy