If you read my blog regularly you will see that I love baking cakes, cupcakes and cookies. I've started to bake more with pastry recently which includes trying different types of pastry and I even had a go at hot water pastry but that's for another post. Bread baking is a different matter and I've tended to stray away from baking bread or dough.
J has been asking for hot cross buns since before Easter. It's traditionally eaten on Good Friday in the UK and in many other countries. Unfortunately I didn't get round to baking it and Easter flew by in the blink of an eye. A week after Easter and J was still asking for his hot cross buns so I decided to give it a go.
I used a Paul Hollywood recipe from BBC Good Food and followed it exactly. As it's my first time baking hot cross buns I decided not to stray from the recipe. The dough needed to prove 3 times and by the time I finished baking this it was almost dinnertime! Luckily we had a busy day doing some home improvements and did not have a chance to have lunch so these were a welcome treat with a cup of tea. I also gave some to our lovely neighbours next door and to our new neighbours who moved in a few weeks ago.
They were very impressed with the homemade hot cross buns and so were we. The buns were soft and fruity and tasted so much better than the shop bought ones. We had them warm from the oven with lashings of butter and they tasted heavenly. We also had them toasted the next day with some homemade marmalade (from a friend) and it tasted just as good.
I'm sending this to Bready, Steady, Go! hosted by Jen from Jen's Food and Michelle from Utterly Scrummy Food For Families. Both Jen and Michelle are keen bread bakers so they've decided to host this challenge together. I think it has a great challenge name which was chosen by one of Michelle's daughters.
It's also going to Treat Petite hosted by Kat from The Baking Eplorer and Stuart from Cakeyboi. The theme this month is Hello Spring.
Finally to Let's Cook for Easter hosted by Nayna from Simply Food.
bread flour with salt, yeast and sugar 
the dough is soft and crumbly...
...but becomes smooth and glossy after kneading 
adding in the fruit after allowing the dough to prove 
looks delicious!
I weighed each bun as suggested to ensure even cooking 
The cross is made from a flour and water paste The glaze gives it a really nice shine 
Lashings of butter!
Recipe from BBC Good Food
The benefit of baking your own Hot Cross Buns is you can make them any time of the year, should you fancy one. They look delicious and agree they are a little time consuming but homemade always tastes best.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to you hot water pastry post as this has been on my to bake list for a while and maybe on it for a while longer.
Angela - Garden Tea Cakes and Me
I totally agree and I can us having hot cross buns in the autumn! I am going to post my hot water pastry recipe later this week so do check back to see what it is.
Delete<these look really delicious !
ReplyDeleteThese look delicious. I didn't get round to making my own either this year. I'll definitely have to do some next year.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to see what you're doing with the hot water crust pastry too. It's not one that I've tried before (it's on my very long list of things to have a go at). I love the idea of making a hand raised pie it looks a bit like doing pottery!
Thanks for joining in with #FoodYearLinkup x
Now that I know how to make them there will be no excuse for next year! I will be posting my hot water crust pastry later this week
DeleteI love this recipe it's great isn't it? Your buns looks exceptional. x
ReplyDeleteIt's a brilliant recipe!
DeleteThese look delicious, I love the glaze, it's so inviting. Looking forward to seeing what you get up to with hot water crust patry, that's one I've not tried before.
ReplyDeleteThanks for joining in with Bready Steady Go :)
Thanks for hosting. I will be posing my hot water crust pastry later this week.
DeleteThese look great - my hot cross buns turned out really badly and now it was so long ago I don't think I'm going to bother putting them on the blog!
ReplyDeleteOh that's a shame. I was a little worried about these but luckily they turned out well.
DeleteAmazing! Can't believe this is your first time making them - great job. Thanks for entering into Treat Petite.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'm so pleased that I've managed to bake these successfully.
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