Homemade Hot Cross Buns

Ok, so it might seem a little late for posts about Easter but I just found these pics on my camera...

Easter seems to be all about chocolate these days, but we opted for hot cross buns for our Easter treat this year. These homemade lovelies weren't baked by me or my honey, they were the handiwork of Poppet's granny. 

As we were visitng the Grandparents this Easter, my honey put in his request for "hot cross buns coming out of the oven on his arrival"  Cheeky devil :)  Although I must say, they were really good!

These were Poppet's first ever hot cross buns and she approved too.  I think she would have happily eaten them all day if only we would let her...

Here is her recipe if you would like to try them.  I think they would make lovely buns year round, if you left off the cross :) 

HOT CROSS BUNS:

4 cups bread flour (high grade)
1 – 2 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp salt
½ cup caster sugar
30gr (1 oz) fresh yeast or 3 tsp/1 sachet easy blend yeast
112g (4 oz) butter
1 cup sultanas
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup lukewarm milk


Sift flour with salt and spice; rub in butter until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs, stir in sultanas. Make a well in the centre. Add yeast and sugar to warm milk to dissolve completely. Add yeast mixture with beaten eggs to the flour, mixing well to make a soft dough. Turn onto lightly floured board and knead until smooth and elastic. Shape into ball and place in a clean, greased bowl. Turn dough over so that top is greased. Cover and leave to rise in warm place until doubled in bulk, approximately 1½ hours.

Turn risen dough onto lightly floured board and gently press out to 1cm thickness. Divide into 16 pieces (or 20 for smaller buns) and shape each into a small ball. Place buns on greased oven tray, cover and leave in warm place to rise until a good bun size. Bake in hot 200˚C for approximately 15 minutes. Remove from oven and brush with glaze, put back into open, off, oven to dry. Pipe white icing crosses on each bun.

Yum xx