Hot Cross Buns- Perfect for the Season

"Hot cross buns!

Hot cross buns!

One ha' penny,

Two ha' penny,

Hot cross buns!

If you have no daughters,

Give them to your sons

One ha' penny,

Two ha' penny,

Hot Cross Buns! "

-WikiPedia

I have a daughter and she enjoyed the buns I tried at home few days backs ... infact right out of the oven even before I piped the cross. :)

Hot Cross Buns are yeast leavened sweet buns made from dried fruits like currants, raisins or candied citrus peels and is marked with a cross on top. The cross can be made in several ways like icing,flour,pastry etc and is two intersecting cuts.I tried out  Easy Hot Cross Buns from King Arthur Flour site and they were excellent.

Ingredients:

Apple Juice: 1/4 cup -1/2 cup

Mixed Dry fruits: 1/2 cup

Raisins: 1/2 cup

All Purpose Flour: 4&1/2 cups +more for dusting

Instant Yeast:1 tsp

Baking Powder:1 tbsp

Brown Sugar: 4 tbsp packed

Ground Cinnamon:1 tsp + as needed

Ground Cloves: 1/4 tsp or as needed

Ground Nutmeg: 1/4 tsp or as  needed

Salt: 1 &3/4 tsp (reduce if salted butter is used)

Milk: 1 &1/4 cup room temp

Unsalted Butter: 6 tbsp room temp

Eggs : 2 or Ener G egg: 2 (1 tbsp Ener G mixed with 4 tbsp water)

Egg Yolk or Ener G egg yolk: 1 (1.5 packed tsp beaten with 1 tbsp water)

Topping:

Egg White of the third egg : 1 (I avoided this)

Milk

Icing:

Icing Sugar/ Confections Sugar: 1 cup + 2 tbsp

Milk:2 -4 tsp  as needed to make a thick pipeable icing

Vanilla :1/2 tsp

Salt: a pinch

Preparation:

Soak the dried fruits (I used apricots,figs and currants) and raisins in apple juice and microwave in 10 seconds for warming it up.I used 1/2 cup juice rather than the mentioned 1/4 cup. Take out and let it cool.

Mix together flour,yeast,baking powder,sugar,spices and salt. Mix together the wet ingredients -milk,yolk,eggs and soft butter well.Make a hole in the flour mix  and add in the wet mix and knead together. to get a dry dough.This could be because I used the Egg replacer and may not be so with actual eggs.

 Add in the juice -dried fruit mix and then knead again so that the fruits are absorbed in the dough. Now you will end up with a very sticky dough.

Now I went for 1/2 cup juice as I was using egg replacer which thickens the batter or dries the dough with which it is working.As expected the dough which was very dry for me unlike the normal bread dough, turned to be normal as soon as I added the juice-fruit mix.Do follow the original or as per assumptions when you try this.

Knead the dough  adding little bit flour as needed on the counter till we get a manageable dough which is smooth and elastic. Keep the dough covered in a greased bowl,turning once to get coated with oil and let it rise for about an hour.

 The dough may not double in volume,but surely become puffy.But I kept it in a very warm or hot place and it almost doubled ;) .

Pinch small pieces of the dough and shape them into small balls. Place the buns in a lined and greased dish or baking sheet.Cover with a loose plastic wrap and let it rise for another hour when they will double.

Preheat the oven to 375F.Whisk together the eggwhite and milk and wash over the buns. I went for milk wash only. I must say here that my buns do not look professional.The only milk and eggwash-milk looks are different.The taste was SUPERB though.

The pic collage looks like...

Bake the buns for 20 minutes until they are golden brown.Take out and place the buns on the rack to cool.

Mix together the ingredients of piping and make crosses on the buns.

Fresh from the oven they tasted superb.I had gone for half of the recipe and also smaller buns.I never thought they would turn out so wonderful.The icing adds to the taste.

A hearty batch of Hot Cross Buns goes to BBD#35: Bread with Dry Fruits at Taste of PearlCity,an event by Zorra of Kochtopf.

 Enjoy the season with Hot cross Buns!!!