Friday

Hot Cross Buns





Hot Cross buns are an Easter tradition ~ fragrant with cinnamon, and sometimes cardamom and filled with sultanas, or currants (others use golden raisins), and a hint of orange ~ best served warm with butter.



They are very good with a cup of tea or coffee. Usually I purchase them, but this year I made them using one of Donna Hay's recipes.
The pastry "crosses" in this version are piped on to the risen dough before baking.



They were delicious, but next time I would make a couple of changes to the recipe ~ Donna's recipe doesn't call for any salt in the dough, and I would defintely add a bit next time, not only for the flavor but also to control the rise of the yeast.


Here is one split in half horizontally~ you can see how tall they rose!

I would also reduce the oven temperature ~ her recipe indicates to bake for 25 to 30 minutes at 390* (F). They were quickly browning at 10 minutes, so I reduced the temperature to 350*, and tented gently with foil so they wouldn't over-brown before baking through.



The mixture for the crosses in Donna's recipe is simply a mixture of flour, water and sugar, and as you can see they "crosses" spread during baking much more than I would have liked. Next time I'll pipe on a confectioner's sugar icing after they have baked and cooled.





Although these were quite good, next time I think I would like to try THIS recipe as found on allrecipes.com, as it is most similar to the Hot Cross Buns to which I'm accustomed.


Yes, it poured here Friday morning ~ as evidenced by the photo above.

Fragrant Hot Cross Buns, and colorful and fragrant spring flowers like these hyacinth always bring back fond memories of past Easters.




If you observe Easter, I hope you have a joyous celebration!








Thank you for stopping to visit today. :)




15 comments:

  1. Well they still look tasty, even if the cross does look more like the red cross than a hot cross bun cross. ;-)
    Happy Easter to you!

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  2. Awww Mare, you had me at "best served warm with butter" !!!
    That's a name of a cookbook if I ever heard of one!
    Have a wonderful Easter!
    Michelle

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  3. They are beautiful~ What a treat..I made some one year and now I wonder why I didn't~ Jacques loved them..I think they are so pretty.Bravo!

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  4. Hot cross buns remind me of my mother who always baked them for us for Easter morning. You've brought back some wonderful memories, Mari. Happiest Easter good wishes and blessings to you and your family.

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  5. LOVE the idea of a cookbook called "best served warm with butter"!!!!These look wonderful, wish I could come share one with you! Have a beautiful Easter! XO, Pinky

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  6. GORGEOUS!!!!!!
    HAPPY EASTER girlfriend!
    You have some beautiful buns there...
    :*

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  7. Those are the prettiest hot cross buns I have ever seen! The store bought ones ususally are so sloppy looking, and not very well made.
    I kind of decided not to get them this year, and instead, bought this "Columba" made in Italy. They were selling them at the Pasta Shop in Berkeley. It is suppose to be dove shapped, so I'm excited to see it an eat it. It is like a panatone.

    Happy Easter to you :)

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  8. Mari, these looks soooo delicious!!!

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  9. These look beautiful! Happy Easter!

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  10. I can't help it ... I have to post this ...
    What do you get when you pour hot water down a rabbit hole?
    Hot Cross Bunnies.

    Happy Easter.

    The painting of the hyacinth is just beautiful!

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  11. The hot cross buns look so inviting! Hope you had a wonderful Easter.

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  12. The hyacynth photo is amazing!

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A Sampling of my food . . .

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