The Hottest Crossed Bun

It’s almost Easter time. While once, that meant my thoughts started turning to frolicking through fields of chocolate eggs and fraternising with fluffy white bunny rabbits, I now much prefer to spoil myself with delicious freshly baked Easter goodies.

Yes, ‘tis the season for hot cross buns, my most favourite seasonal pastry in all the land. Normally, I begin baking hot cross buns two weeks out from Easter and I use any excuse to make them. I invite people over for breakfasts and morning teas and serve them freshly baked, in the spirit of “the season”. I bring them to work in a big wicker basket lined with a red-and-white-chequered tea towel and give them out to butter up co-workers and win friends. I also bring them to work in a little lunchbox as a breakfast on-the-go.

This year, I am sad to admit that I haven’t made a single hot cross bun yet. It has been a busy few weeks but that’s no excuse. It’s a travesty. But today is my last day in the office before the Easter break, and first thing tomorrow, I will make a batch.

I live alone, so as not to be greedy I usually make hot cross buns in batches of six. Of course if you are baking for a family or are entertaining, then just multiply the measurements accordingly.

Here is my fool proof recipe for the perfect hot cross bun – it’s adapted from a recipe given to me by an actual chef and doyenne of good food (thus it’s created, tried and tested by someone far superior at cooking than I)… 

The Perfect Hot Cross Bun

Makes six

Ingredients for The Bun:

2 cups of plain flour

1 sachet of dry yeast (7 grams)

¼ brown sugar

½ teaspoon cinnamon

pinch of salt

1 cup of currants/raisons (or half a cup of each!)

½ chocolate chips (this is optional, but I have a very sweet tooth at this time of year)

1 tablespoon of butter

150ml low fat milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

Ingredients for the Flour Paste (to make the white crosses):

¼ cup of plain flour

2 – 3 tablespoons of water

Ingredients for The Glaze (to give your buns a polished look):

1 cup water

3 tablespoons of sugar

Process:

Combine all the dry ingredients (including raisons and chocolate chips) in a bowl, and set aside.

Then, melt the butter slowly in a saucepan over low heat, then add the milk. Once the milk has warmed slightly, add that mixture plus the beaten egg to the dry ingredients. Mix this doughy concoction together until it is smooth and, well, doughy. Perfectly doughy.

Next is the kneading process, so dust some flour on a bench top of cutting board – any clean flat surface really. Place the dough on this floured surface and knead for 8 to 10 minutes. Play some upbeat music while you’re doing this so you don’t get bored! In the spirit of Easter and this holiest time of year, I particularly like Cat Stevens rendition of ‘Morning has Broken’.

Once your dough is kneaded to perfection, place it in a slightly greased bowl (I like bowls greased with butter personally, but bowls greased with oil was the directive given by the chef behind this recipe. Choose a side). Cover tightly with gladwrap and set aside at room-temperature and wait for the yeast to perform its magic. Generally this takes just over an hour – the dough should eventually be double its original size.

While your magic dough is rising, let’s get organised! Preheat the over to 180 degree – 190 degrees (depending on your oven). Prepare a baking tray and line it with baking paper.

Once your dough has miraculously grown to twice its original size, remove it from the bowl and release any pent up frustration you may be storing, by punching the dough back down to its original size. That teaches that dough for performing its magic trickery on you! That feels better doesn’t it!

Once again, knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until it looks creamy smooth (or as creamy smooth as it can be when it has raisons and chocolate chips throughout). Then divide this big clump of dough into six little bun size portions. Place them evenly on the baking tray, and cover the whole thing with glad wrap again. Set aside for half an hour.

Now it’s time to make that cool little white flour cross that adorns the bun and gives them their “hot cross” name. This part is easy. You just have to mix the flour and water together in bowl until smooth – if the mixture looks to thick, just add a little water (but please do so sparingly – you can always add more water, but you can take the water out if it’s too runny!)

To apply the cross, scoop the white floury paste into a snap lock bag and cut a small hole in the corner. You can then use this ingenious invention to pipe the paste over the top of the buns to form those iconic crosses. I like to make little cross shaped indentations on the raw buns as well, and that way, the paste just squeezes seamlessly into that. Easy peasy.

Now, to put the “hot” in “hot cross buns”: bake these buns, crosses and all, for 20 minutes – or until the buns are cooked through.

Finally, as the final perfect touch, make your buns glisten and shine like they’ve been made by a professional baker by applying the glaze. To make the glaze, mix the water and sugar into a small saucepan over a low heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves and the solution looks crystal clear. Bring to the boil and continue for 5 minutes. Voila! You have a glaze! Sparingly brush this sweet warm glaze over your warm hot cross buns and you’re done!

I like to serve warm with lashings of butter. Mmmm…..