Easter | Words and Herbs

Last year I vowed I would try to make my own hot cross buns in the future, as they are not available in Germany. The traditional English bun for Good Friday is one of my favourites – a spiced teacake, with juicy sultanas or raisins toasted and spread with plenty of butter. (The alternative to a crumpet for afternoon tea!) Since my Man of Many Talents is not particularly keen on raisins etc, I pondered on what I could substitute them with… Apparently several large UK stores sell them with chunks of Belgian chocolate, so chocolate chips it was! I made up the whole dough with the spices and then halved it, adding sultanas to one half and chocolate chips to the other. They were both delicious and there is no looking back; home made are definitely much better!

HOT CROSS BUNS

My recipe is based on one from the BBC Food website, but I made a few slight changes.

250ml (1 cup) milk
50g (3 1/2 tbsps) butter

500g (1 lb) strong flour
7g (1/4 oz) packet of instant dried yeast
1 tsp salt
75g (1/3 cup) sugar
1 organic, free-range egg

2 tsps ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsps allspice
1/2 tsp cardamom
a little nutmeg
a pinch of mace
zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon

150g (5 oz) seedless sultanas OR 75g (2 1/2 oz) milk chocolate chips (I used half for each half of the dough)

For the crosses: 75g (2 1/2 oz) flour, 2 tsps sugar and 4 tbsps water (or a little more)

For the glaze: 2 tbsps apricot (or similar) jam, warmed

First bring the milk to the boil, remove from heat and stir in butter, until it has melted. Leave to cool. Then sift together the flour, salt, yeast and sugar. When the milk is hand warm, use a wooden spoon to stir it into the flour mixture with the beaten egg. With your hands, form into a dough and on a floured surface knead for 5-10 minutes. Place dough in a clean bowl and drizzle a little oil over it. Cover with a clean tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size. (1-2 hours)

Punch down the dough, and knead in the mixed spices and orange/lemon zest. Now add the sultanas or chocolate chips and knead well. Divide the dough into 16 pieces and place on a baking tray lined with parchment. Cover with a tea towel again and leave to rise for another hour or so.

Meanwhile mix the flour, sugar and water for the crosses. The consistency required is a thick paste, but thin enough to pipe with a piping bag and a thin nozzle. Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Once the buns have risen again, pipe the paste over the tops in a cross and bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from oven and immediately glaze with the warmed jam, using a pastry brush, then leave to cool a little.

They taste fabulous while still warm, with a little butter. But they were also delicious cold, and they are good toasted with butter the next day too!

(They also freeze well)

😀