Hot Cross Buns

So you’ve decided to take on the messy mayhem of bun making with kids? Give yourself a pat on the back! It will take a few hours and be extremely messy but the results are totally worth it!

About a year ago the lovely librarian in our local library offered us a CD of nursery rhymes which they were about to throw away. Naive 2017 Catherine thought ‘why not? It’ll be nice to have some nursery rhymes while we drive’.

It’s now been a year since I’ve had the radio on in my car and I’ve heard the Current Bun song 67,352 times.

As I say these do require a bit more effort but they taste amazing and have been described as ‘a little bite of heaven’!

Ingredients

For the buns

• 10g dried fast action yeast
• 500g strong white flour
• 1 egg
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 50g melted salted butter
• 70ml warm milk
• 200ml warm water
• 150g sultanas
• Grated rind of 1 orange
• Generous teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the crosses;

• 5 tablespoons plain flour
• 1-2 tablespoons of water

To glaze

• Heaped tablespoon apricot jam

If you have a stand mixer feel free to make you dough using your mixture and dough hook attachment. I foolishly opted for the old fashioned bowl and spoon method which, although brilliant fun, did result in my scraping air dried bun dough off my dining chairs for a considerable amount of time.

In a jug, combine the water, sugar and yeast, and sit for 5 minutes until the mixture becomes a bit frothy.

In a large bowl add the flour and stir in the yeast mixture. Whilst stirring, add the milk, egg and melted butter. Mix with your hands until a VERY sticky dough forms.

Knead the dough for about ten minutes or until smooth and elastic. This is when we like to play Spider-Man as the stickiness level is intense!

Add the sultanas, cinnamon and orange zest. Give a much quicker knead to incorporate these into the dough. Plop into the bowl and cover with a tea towel.

Pop in a warm place for an hour (near a radiator or a warm windowsil are my go-to choices) or until doubled in size. In the meantime line 2 baking sheets with baking paper .

Separate the dough into 8-10 even sized balls and pop onto the baking sheets giving plenty of space in between. Loosely cover with a greased sheet of film and leave in a warm place again for about half an hour or double the size.

Preheat the oven to 200°C Gas Mark 8.

Mix the plain flour and water together to make a thick paste. Pipe or drizzle the paste over the buns to create a cross.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until raised and golden.

Spoon the apricot jam into a microwave safe bowl or mug and heat for 15-30 seconds or until runny.

Whilst still warm from the oven, gently brush the tops of the buns with the jam.

Enjoy warm with butter or slice and toast for a special breakfast 😀

For Chocolate Orange buns

Make the dough as per the above but at the point of adding the fruit add the zest of 1 orange and 100g chocolate chips or chunks.

Proof and bake as above and glaze with a little maple syrup.