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I make these every year at Easter. This year I'm submitting the recipe to the Weekend Cookbook Challenge. This month the theme is Easter Breakfast and brunch. How perfect, my tradition fits the theme without even trying. I got the Laurel's Kitchen bread book fourteen or fifteen years ago, when my kids were very tiny and I thought learning to make bread would give me something to do, during those long/short winter days. When Easter came I made the hot cross buns.
You can vary the dried fruit. This year I used a combination of apples, apricots, peaches, dates and cranberries. You can use different nuts or as I do leave them out. My husband is allergic to all nuts.
The spices, cinnamon cloves cardamon and nutmeg are mixed in with honey to use as a glaze, after the buns come out of the oven.
Ingredients
3 cups dried fruit
1 cup nuts
2 tsp yeast I use 1 tablespoon
1/2 cup warm water
6 cups finely ground whole wheat flour
2 tsp salt
2 large eggs beaten set some aside
3 tablespoons honey
1 cup water very hot
1 cup cold butter milk
more water as required
1/4 cup butter
Honey glaze
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon butter
spices
Steam the fruit, chop all until it is the size of raisins, chop the nuts so they are the size of rasins.
Dissolve the yeast in warm water, set aside.
Mix the flour and salt in a bowl.
Beat the eggs save 3 tablespoons to use as an egg wash later
Mix honey with the hot water add the buttermilk and eggs.
Pour the liquids into the flour with the yeast. Mix all together then knead until soft and silky. Smear the butter on the tabletop, in the French manner, and knead it into the bread. Knead in then fruit and nuts.
Place the dough in a bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place. After 1 1/2 hours poke your finger into the dough about 1/2 inch deep . If the hole doesn't fill in it is ready to be deflated. Because of the weight of the ingredients it could take a lot longer , keep an eye on it and don't go on to the next step until the dough is ready.
Press out all the gas and let rise again . The second rise will be a lot shorter.
The dough makes 30 big buns or 60 small buns. You will need lots of oven space and cookie sheets to fit it all into the oven at the same time. You could refrigerate some of the dough while you shape some of it or just keep deflating the portion you are not working with, like I do.
Laurel says to allow 2 3/4 oz for each big bun. I can't be bothered to get this accurate . I just divide the dough up into 30, roughly equal portions.
Shape the buns and place on cookie sheets giving them about 1/2 inch space all around . Let them rise 1/2 an hour or more. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Just before they are ready to go into the oven , using a spatula or something blunt mark a cross on the top of each bun, pressing down about halfway into the dough. Brush each bun with the egg wash.
Bake
Boil the honey with the spices. When the buns are cooked brush the tops with the honey glaze.
After the buns have cooled, mark the cross again this time with white icing. Mix together some icing sugar with a little water until stiff.
Labels: cooking
You know, I don't think I've ever had hot cross buns, but when I was in a high school choir we rehearsed a song about them.
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