Easter is a holiday typically characterised by eating lots of chocolate which is not my thing, I like the flavour of chocolate but vastly prefer it to be something flavoured with chocolate than just eating it.  To me, eating chocolate rabbits is like eating honey from the jar.

I love hot cross buns, they’re delicious.  They’re certainly the best thing about Easter.

In most Christian countries or those that have a large population identifying as such, hot cross buns are traditionally eaten on Good Friday which is the Friday before Easter.  The cross (barely visible on mine, my oven produces great food but doesn’t brown things well) has a bunch of different historical explanations; these days symbolising the crucification of Christ but previously symbolising the four quarters of the moon in honour of the Saxon goddess Eostre, and the ancient Greeks marking cake with crosses much earlier.

In Australia and New Zealand chocolate hot cross buns are increasingly popular.  This practice is unethical behaviour and should be stamped out.  Hot cross buns should contain currants, a mix of currants and raisins or in some cases orange zest.

This recipe makes delicious hot cross buns that are quite simple.

Ingredients

  • 4C bakers “strong” flour
  • 2 x 7g sachets dried yeast
  • 1/3C caster sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons mixed spice
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 1/2C currants
  • White wine
  • 40g butter
  • 300ml milk
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten – see note

Note: The type and quality of eggs you use when you make buns produces a profound difference in the end result.  Small battery eggs that have been kept for a long time in a cold fridge will produce hard, difficult to work dough and a resultant cake the consistency of furniture foam.  Large, eggs from pasture ranged chickens that are fresh and haven’t been aggressively cooled produce an infinitely better result – a smooth, elastic dough that produces a lighter, airy bun.

Method

1.  Put the currants in a shallow tupperware bowl or similar, and cover them with the wine.  Leave them for ten to fifteen minutes or until the currants are not reconstituted but definitely have picked up some extra puffiness.  Rinse them lightly, discard the wine.

2. Combine flour, yeast, sugar, mixed spice, salt and currants in a REALLY big bowl. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Add the milk then the eggs and keep warming, but don’t allow it to become hot or you’ll wind up killing yeast or cooking the eggs.

3.  Add warm milk mixture and eggs to currant mixture. Use a spatula to mix until dough almost comes together, pulling flour mix into the eggs/milk/butter. Use clean hands to finish mixing to form a soft dough.

4.  Turn the dough, which will likely be quite sticky, onto a floured surface and knead for ten minutes until it’s quite elastic.  Clean out the bowl, grease it lightly with some more butter, then return the dough ball to the bowl.  Cover it with cling wrap then put it in a warm place for about an hour to an hour and a half or until it’s doubled in size.

5.  Punch the large dough ball back to its original size (this process is called “knocking” if you’re unfamiliar, and stops the result tasting yeasty by removing certain gasses).

6.  Pull the dough into even thirds, then pull each third in half for six balls, then pull each ball in half so you are left with twelve evenly shaped balls.  Arrange them on baking paper on a large baking tray with a centimeter between them.  Preheat the oven to 190 while the balls rise to double their size again over half an hour.

7.  Put half a cup or more of plain flour in a ziplock bag with enough water to make a thinnish paste, about the consistency of honey.  Cut a corner off the bag and use it to pipe crosses on the buns.

8.  Bake the buns for about 25 minutes.  If you want to glaze them, either dilute some honey and brush the tops of the buns when they are 5 minutes away from being done, or cook three tablespoons of castor sugar in a 1/3C of water until it’s starting to thicken and use that.

{March 28, 2010} {Tags: , , }