Hot Cross Buns
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup caster sugar
- 4 x 7g sachets dry yeast – (experiment, as while mine taste Bakers Delight-esque, they don’t have the same fluffiness – that comes from rising once in bun form, or whilst baking)
- 11/2 cups warm milk
- 600g plain flour
- Pinch of salt
- 3 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp mixed spice – if your buns don’t taste enough like Hot Cross Buns, but like bread, normally its because of not enough mixed spice
- 60g butter, chopped
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 1 cup currants – add more as you please, I normally use more as I like my buns fruity
Paste for crosses
- 1/2 cup plain flour
- 4 tbsp water
- 2 tsp caster sugar
N.B. I’ve found good paste difficult to achieve, play around with flour/water ratio and find what works best – then leave me a comment and tell me!
Glaze
- 1 tbsp very hot water
- 1 tsp gelatine powder
- 1 tbsp caster sugar
N.B. Normally don’t even put the glaze on as the extra sugar isn’t really necessary. Can also use Icing Sugar instead of gelatine and caster sugar.
Instructions
Preheat oven to 220 degrees.
Mix caster sugar, yeast and milk in a bowl, stir until smooth, cover and rest in a warm place for 10minutes or until frothy.
Sift flour, salt, cinnamon and mixed spice into a large bowl. Use your fingertips to rub butter into flour mixture. Stir in yeast mixture, egg and currants until well combined. Cover and rest in a warm place for 45minutes or until mixture has doubled in size.
Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic (about five minutes). Divide dough into 16 even pieces and roll into balls. Place balls into a lightly greased square cake pan lined with baking paper. Rest covered for 10-15 minutes or until balls have risen to the top of the pan.
Combine paste ingredients in a small bowl and, using a piping bag fitted with a small plain nozzle or a plastic bag with a snip off one corner, pipe crosses over buns.
Bake for about 20minutes or until well browned and cooked. Combine glaze ingredients in a small bowl and stir until sugar is dissolved. Brush buns with warm glaze and cool on a cake rack.
(Hot cross buns are traditionally eaten on Good Friday, so you could begin the dough the day before. Let it rise, punch down and place in a large, lightly oiled bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight. The next day, punch down once, knead and form into buns and allow them to rise before baking.)