The Food Gatherer's Note: Holtwhites' hot cross buns are supremely good, but occasionally it's fun to have a go at making your own! FG's Kim Mansfield Davies uses this simple recipe to make hers.
HOT CROSS BUNS
Easter is around the corner and soon our house will be filled with broken promises for lent and a great deal of chocolate, but I love Easter for the excuse to scoff as many hot cross buns as we can. Sometimes we like to make hot cross buns ourselves and my girls delight in anointing them at the end with the cross.
This recipe is simple and straight forward, you will need to leave it to rise twice, once for an hour and again for 45 minutes, giving you time to get on with hiding all those Easter eggs!
For the buns:
180ml of warm milk
4 tsp dry instant yeast
75g sugar
3 eggs
125ml oil
560g plain flour
Zest of 1 orange
¾ tsp salt
1 tsp mixed spice
160g dry sultanas /raisins
For the cross:
3 tbsp of plain flour and 50mls of water
For the glaze:
110g sugar and 50ml water
Pre-heat the oven to 180ºc /fan 160º.
- Nothing could be simpler, just measure all the ingredients into a bowl except for the dry fruit and Stir with a wooden spoon until it comes together as a dough.
- Turn out onto a floured work surface and knead until the mixture is smooth then add the dry fruit and knead until it's all blended together.
- Tip the mix onto a lightly greased bowl and cover with cling film and leave for 1 – 11/2 hours to double in size.
- Knead it again for 1 minute to “knock it back".
- Divide the dough into 12 rolls and place onto a lined tray and space out as they will rise again and leave for 45 minutes.
- In a bowl, mix 3 tbsp of plain flour and 2 tbsp of cold water until you have a paste and pour it into an icing bag, you can use a freezer bag with the corner snipped off. Pipe crosses onto the buns.
- Place the buns into the oven for 25-30 minutes. Remove from the oven and prepare the glaze by gently heating the sugar with water then brishing the mixture over the buns while they are still hot.
- Leave to cool for as long as you can. In my case, not long!
Happy Easter
Enjoy x