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- Jul 21, 2014
Hot cross buns - fig and pecan
jules [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
As April 3 is Good Friday, I thought I might post a thread regarding Hot Cross Buns, which are a tradition in Canada for Good Friday. I cannot remember a good Friday without these wonderful buns. My mum made or bought them and I have made them for more years that I care to remember.
There are two basic types of buns. One has a cross on the top made with icing, and the other has a cross made of flour and water, which is placed on the bun before baking. Both are delicious toasted, with butter.
here is a bit of history about the hot cross bun. from the Food Timeline
"The practice of eating special small cakes at the time of the Spring festival seems to date back at least to the ancient Greeks, but the English custom of eating spiced buns on Good Friday was perhaps institutionalized in Tudor times, when a London bylaw was introduced forbidding the sale of such buns except on Good Friday, at Christmas, and at burials. The first intimation we have of a cross appearing on the bun, in remembrance of Christ's cross, comes in Poor Robin's Amanack (1733): Good Friday comes this month, the old woman runs, with one or two a penny hot cross buns' (a version of the once familiar street-dry "One-a-penny, two-a penny, hot cross buns'). At this stage the cross was presumably simply incised with a knife, rather than piped on in pastry, as is the modern commercial practice. As yet, too, the name of such buns was just cross buns: James Boswell recorded in his Life of Johnson (1791): 9 Apr. An. 1773 Being Good Friday I breakfasted with him and cross-buns.' The fact that they were generally sold hot, however, seems to have led by the early nineteenth century to the incorporation of hot into their name."
---An A-Z of Food & Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 164)
For more history see: http://www.foodtimeline.org/easter.html#hotcrossbuns
Hot Cross Buns even have a song/ nursey rhyme written about them.
Hot cross buns sellers in Victorian England
.lavenderandlovage.com/.../baking-for-easter
And now, the recipe.
Hot Cross Buns
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (125 mL) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (60 mL) warm water
- 1 pkg (15ml) active dry yeast
- 3-1/2 cups (875 mL) all purpose flour
- 2 tbsp (30 mL) cinnamon
- 1 tsp (5 mL) nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt
- 1/4 tsp (1 mL) ground cloves
- 3/4 cup (175 mL) milk, warmed
- 1/4 cup (60 mL) melted butter
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/2 cup (125 mL) dried currants
- 1/4 cup (60 mL) chopped candied peel, mixed
- 2 tbsp (30 mL) granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp (30 mL) water
- 1/2 cup (125 mL) icing sugar
- 2 tsp (10 mL) water
Preparation
In small bowl, dissolve 1 tbsp (15 mL) of the sugar in warm water. Sprinkle in yeast; let stand for 10 minutes or until frothy. Meanwhile, in large bowl, blend together remaining sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and cloves; make well in center. Whisk together milk, butter, egg and egg yolk; pour into well. Pour in yeast mixture. With wooden spoon, stir until soft dough forms.
Turn out dough onto lightly floured surface; knead for 8 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Place in greased bowl, turning to grease all over. Cover with plastic wrap; let rise in warm draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
Punch down dough; turn out onto lightly floured surface. Knead in currants and peel. Shape into 12-inch (30 cm) log; with serrated knife, cut into 9 pieces, Shape each into ball, stretching and pinching dough underneath to make tops smooth. Place 2 inches (5 cm) apart on greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 35 minutes. Bake in center of 400ºF (200ºC) oven for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.
Glaze: In saucepan, stir sugar with water over medium heat until dissolved; brush over buns. Let cool in pan.
Icing: Stir icing sugar with water. Using piping bag fitted with round tip, pipe cross on top of each cooled bun.
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