Hot cross buns cooling to 'eatable' temperature.
I attended a very small (12 kids) primary school for a year and as part of our classes in the lead up to Easter we made hot cross buns. There were always baked goods around our house as a kid but my mum was scared of baking with yeast and so I'd never had any home made bread or bakery items. Twenty five years later and I can still remember how good they tasted.
I've been making my own buns for a while now but have generally stuck to yeast based recipes. My go-to for several years has been Donna Hay's hot cross buns from her Modern Classics Volume 2. These have been a great performer. I generally skip the peel but otherwise I stick to the recipe on this one (something different for me).
Since I jumped down the rabbit hole that is sourdough baking I've been contemplating sourdough hot cross buns. I've been researching sourdough hot cross buns. And then back to contemplating sourdough hot cross buns. But this week, when mixing up some loaves of bread, I had some excess starter that was all awake with nothing to do. The time had come....for more research. Just kidding, although I did need to do a quick google to find a recipe. I went with this one.
Buns proving before they get their crosses.
A couple of changes that I made to the recipe (you're shocked right?). I didn't soak the fruit, I just mixed it in. I added a little dried pear from a recent forage find along with the sultanas. I used mixed spice instead of allspice - I'm not sure if this was a typo or lost in translation thing but you've got to have mixed spice in your buns. I stuck with all white flour and I actually needed to add a little extra to get a dough that I could roll into balls. Lastly I skipped the glaze. If I was serving these immediately and eating them all at once (with others, not by myself) I'd probably go with it but frankly I find glaze messy in the storage container. Oh, and super super sticky and messy in the hands of two children.
One a penny, two a penny....
Overall I'm happy with my first foray into the land of sourdough hot cross buns. I'll definitely give them another whirl next year and see how my 'refined' recipe performs.
Have you been baking any hot cross buns this Easter?
If you prefer to buy, do you jump in when they appear in January or hold off until closer to?
Lovely buns! And I love your blog! Wonderful recipes! Dropping by from Rhonda's blog!
ReplyDeleteHi Matty, welcome to my little space on the interwebs.
DeleteI am making the same today, already the dough smells amazing!
ReplyDeleteI bet they turned out well Jane. Your baking always looks amazing.
DeleteI haven't tried Sourdough Hot Cross buns, and yours look great. I always think commercial Hot Cross buns are light and the taste relies on a few raisons/sultanas! Enjoy yours, they look delicious!
ReplyDeleteThanks Gerrie, they definitely were tasty. I'm a convert. More and more I find commercially made things just not to my liking so it's great to DIY and experiment a little.
DeleteI haven't made the sourdough ones as yet but did make sugar free ones last year. Yours look great and good on you for experimenting. I have made sourdough banana bread once which is the only experiment I have undertaken with my starter apart from the two loaves I bake every week. I don't have any starter left over after feeding mine as it is all used with the method I use.
ReplyDeleteHow did the sugar free buns turn out? I generally strip the sugar content way way back as I find most recipes over do it a bit. Sourdough banana bread sounds nice. I added some starter to a pear crumble cake recently, which turned out well. The cake itself kept really well. So many things you can do with the starter. I'm often ending up with a bit of excess as I'm not quite in a groove with my feeding and baking while I'm experimenting with different loaves.
DeleteI made my first ever batch yesterday from a recipe off the SBS food website. Not sourdough, just the Old Fashioned variety! They came out really well. I only ended up using half the suggested amount of fruit as it looked like heaps but upon tasting them realised I could have splashed out with more. It cost no extra $ to make as I just used what I had in the pantry - dates, crystallised ginger and Persian barberries, so a sweet and tangy mix.
ReplyDeleteThat mix of fruits and ginger sounds like a good combo. The kind of bun you could make all year round by leaving off the cross!
DeleteIm enjoying your blog and look forward to your next entry. We are working on being self sufficient too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by and commenting. I'm by no means self sufficient but I hope you can gain a few tips.
DeleteCheers,
Laura
Your little hot cross buns look lovely! I tend to stay away from baking breads (or anything with yeast in it) as ultimately my loaves turn out like bricks. Clearly a lot of work to do in the bread-baking department!! Our son's school did a hot cross bun drive this year and I got a dozen, just in time for Easter. I don't buy them any earlier than that just as we don't eat Easter eggs until the Sunday morning, no matter that the supermarkets stock them as soon as their Xmas range disappears from shelves. Meg:)
ReplyDeleteThanks Meg, they turned out pretty tasty. Have you tried Rhonda's 5 minute bread? It's like the gateway recipe to getting hooked on bread baking I think. That's a win on the hot cross bun drive though - support the school and still enjoy a bit of seasonal baked goods. Hope you had a nice Easter.
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