Hot Cross Buns

The world famous (in our house) hot cross buns. Originally an old recipe from the queen of New Zealand home cooking, Allison Holst, I've tweaked this one a bit almost every year I make them. It makes a decent amount, 30 buns, and doesn't really scale down. Mind you, 30 buns don't last long and most years I end up doing 3 or 4 batches.

Try using different spice blends and different types or combinations of dried fruit, but never, ever add chocolate.

This looks like quite a list of ingredients, but it's actually not that much in total. The method is a bit different too in that you start off with a yeasty liquid, almost like making ciabatta, then add the other ingredients

Did I mention never, ever add chocolate

Quantity: 30 buns

Prep time: about 30 minutes hands on + 90 minutes rising

Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients 

Quantity	Ingredient
820 gm	Flour (high protein bread making flour)
14 gm	Active dried yeast
10 gm	Salt
100 gm	Brown sugar
280 gm	Cold milk
280 gm	Boiling water
50 gm	Butter. Leave on the bench to get softened to room temperature
1	Egg
3 Tbsp	Ground cinnamon
3 Tbsp	Mixed Spice*
1 c	Dried fruit, e.g. sultanas, raisins, currents, cranberries

For the crosses

Quantity	Ingredient
4 Tbsp	Flour (can be regular baking flour)
2 tsp	Butter
some	Hot water
For Glazing
2 Tbsp	Hot water
1 Tbsp	Brown sugar

Method

1. Put 300 gm of the flour along with the yeast, salt and brown sugar into a large bowl
2. Combine the milk and boiling water in a jug or another bowl, then add the liquid to the flour mix and mix together until combined. This will look like a thick batter. Leave it for about 10 minutes for the yeast to start activating and bubbles start appearing in the mix
3. Add the egg, spices and remaining flour and mix until it all comes together 
4. Tip out onto a clean bench and start kneading and knead for about 3 minutes. The dough should be coming together and look a bit less rough
5. Add the butter and get that well mixed into the dough, then knead for about another 8 - 10 minutes
6.  Add the dried fruit and knead for a couple more minutes to work the fruit through the dough. Never, ever add chocolate
7. Shape the dough into a ball. Put about a tablespoon of oil on the bench and roll the dough ball around in it, then place the dough back in the bowl and cover with a tea towel
8. Leave to rise until the dough is double the size. This will take about an hour
9. Once risen, punch (literally punch) the dough so it  collapses, turn onto the bench and knead for about 1 minute to knock all the air out.
10. Divide into 30 buns. I weigh the dough and then divide the weight by 30 to get the rough number, then weigh each bun to the whole gram, e.g. if the weight came to 57.6 gm/bun I'd make the buns 57 gm then for the last 2 buns just make them equal.
11. Place the buns on trays about 1 cm apart to allow for rising 
12. Leave to rise again for about 30 minutes until they look nice and smoothly risen up. Turn on the oven to 180°C to preheat while the dough is rising. 
13. Make a thickish paste from the cross ingredients, using enough water to get a consistency that you'll be able to pipe it without it running everywhere
14. Add the cross paste to a piping bag/tool and pipe crosses onto each bun 
15. Bake in the middle of the oven at 180°C for 12 - 15 minutes. While baking make up the glaze by mixing the brown sugar and hot water together in a small bowl
16. When done, remove from the oven and brush with the glaze. Leave to cool for a bit on the tray before transferring to a rack

* mixed spice is the English mixed spice which is pretty common to find in most supermarkets here, but I usually make my own using this recipe