Easy Hot Cross Buns/ Good Friday Baking

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I came across this recipe a few years ago while browsing the inter net and decided to make it as it seemed so simple. The original recipe is from Donna Hay and the family loved it. So we make different kinds a few times every year, during Lent. The aroma of these buns has more than just the power to make your mouth water and I wish I could bottle it and keep it permanently in my kitchen!

The Recipe:

2 tsp instant dried yeast; 2 tsp brown sugar;

1 cup warm milk; 2½ cups fortified wheat flour ( can use APF too ); 40 gm salted butter, melted; 1/8 tsp salt; 1 egg yolk; 1 tsp mixed spice; ¼ cup red tuiti-fruiti; ¼ cup green tuiti-fruiti; ¼ cup raisins1 tsp caraway seeds

For The Cross:

1/8 cup fortified wheat flour ( or APF); 2 tbsp water ( or more as required);

For The Glaze: 2 tbsp organic honey mixed with 1 tbsp water

Mix the yeast, 2 teaspoons of the sugar and the milk in a large bowl. Keep aside in a warm place for 5 minutes or until bubbles appear.

Place the flour, butter, yolk, salt and mixed spice in a bowl. Add the yeast mixture and mix to a smooth dough. Add the raisins, tuiti- fruiti and nuts and knead on a floured surface for 5 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic. Cover with cling film and keep aside in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in size.  Next, divide into 10 equal sized rounds and rise for 20 minutes.  Pipe the crosses over the buns.  
Brush all over with the glaze before baking in a preheated oven at 180ºC (355ºF) for 20 minutes or until done. In between you can do another glaze ( after 10 minutes), and return to oven.  The buns will have a rich golden hue and you won’t be able to resist reaching out for one or two or three… 

Cool in the oven and then turn out, slice and enjoy with butter or jam.

To Make The Cross: Whisk together the flour and water ( should be sticky . You can put it in a piping tube and pipe it too.

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