Hot cross bun

It’s officially spring now! Weather in this part of the world is still chilly but we are getting more daylights which make it feel a lot like spring. Alarm doesn’t go as siren waking me up from middle of a deep sleep, In fact some days I am up before alarm ! Ah the joys ..Such small small things definitely make me happy :)

Every year closer to Easter I see Hot Cross buns floating around in the blogs. So last weekend I decided to bake some with my little baker. He enjoys every bit of baking, sometimes a bit over enthusiastic which drives me crazy! He did pretty much everything expect the kneading. Waiting for the dough to proof is something we need to work on as he kind of lost interest after that. I baked it in the night and went to bed letting it to cool down and next day morning it was ready to get iced with a cross. It was a special weekend treat for our breakfast and we enjoyed every bite of it!

Before signing off let me all wish you a Happy Easter and a Happy Holi. It’s Easter break for us for the next two weeks so hopefully I will be back here soon with another post soon, until then bye!

Recipe source- Joy of baking

Plain flour - 500 gm

Instant yeast – 2 tsp/7gm

Granulated sugar – 1 tsp

Milk – 400 ml ( luke warm)

Light brown sugar -  ¼ cup (55gm)

Ground cinnamon – 1 tsp

Ground cloves – 1/4 tsp

Ground nutmeg – ¼ tsp

Ground all spice – ¼ tsp( optional)

Salt – ½ tsp

Melted butter – 70 gm ( 5 tbsp)

Egg – 1 +1 (large)

Candied fruit and peel – 1 /4 cup (80 gm)

Raisins – 1/2 cup( 100 gm)

For glaze

Icing sugar – ½ cup /60 gm

Milk/cream – 1 1/2 tbsp

Method

• Dissolve yeast in lukewarm milk. Add a teaspoon of sugar and keep it aside for 5 minutes.
• In a mixing bowl measure the flour. Add the spice powder, sugar and salt. Mix until combined.
• Add the yeast solution to the flour and mix until moistened.
• Gradually add the melted butter and mix.
• Lighlty beat an egg with fork and add it to the dough, mix /beat until it’s incorporated.
• Add the raisins and candied fruit peel and mix. Knead the dough until it’s soft.
• Place the dough in a slightly greased bowl and loosely cover it with a cling film (greased) until its double in size. Takes might take about 2 hours. It depends on how hot your kitchen is.
• Punch the air from the dough and divide it into 14  -15 equal size balls in a baking tray leaving enough space between them.  Allow it to prove for another one hour covering it with a cling film.
• Before baking make an egg wash with 1 egg and I tablespoon of milk and brush it on top of the buns.
• Bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees until its golden brown or a tooth pick inserted comes out clean. Allow it to cool completely.

For Glaze

• Combine icing sugar and milk until smooth (it should be thick). Pour the glaze in a piping bag and pipe a cross on top of each bun.