Sandras' Hot Cross Buns

[sandra]

Do not panic, they are not hard to make!

If you do not have instant yeast (the sachet type) fresh yeast is in Mercadona near the butter. So as not to confuse, I shall post the method for fresh yeast AT THE END.

In a LARGE bowl in this order

1 pt warm water (luke warm)
1 tbspn salt
4 tbspn sugar
4 tbspn oil
1 kg strong flour (mercadona -Aragonesa Harina de Trigo)
1-2 tsp powdered Cinnamon or mixed spice
6 oz dried fruit of your liking - ( currants, sultanas, chopped dried apricots -  up to you)
2 oz mixed peel (only if you like it)
2 tbspn instant yeast

IF YOU WANT CROSSES
2 tbspn flour and same of water, stir together.

Now comes the fun bit.
Use a strong fork, wooden spoon or if you like getting messy, your hands to stir everything up into a dough.
Scrape it out onto a floured surface and knead it until smooth and elastic, a good 5- 10 minutes. Clean the bowl and put dough inside. Cover bowl with clingfilm and  leave to DOUBLE in size. This should take about an hour if room is warm, longer if cold, less if in the warm sun.

Knock back the dough, turn out of bowl onto floured surface and cut into 24 equal pieces. Shape into balls and place on lined baking sheets, leaving space to expand. Allow to almost double in size again. (Go make a cup of tea, read a book for half an hour or so).

For crosses, dribble the flour mix in crosses over buns with a teaspoon. Do this just before putting in oven.

Put in preheated oven at 200 - 220 c (depending how accurate your oven is!) for about 15 min until golden. (You may want to rotate the tray half way through to ensure even browning, depends on oven).
Cool on rack, covered with damp tea towel.

If you like sugar glaze, melt 1 oz sugar with 1 fl oz water until dissolved. Use to brush over buns while they are still hot. (Do not cover as fabric will stick to the glaze!)

For fresh yeast, use 25g, crumble it into the warm water and sugar and stir before adding the rest of the ingredients, adding the salt last.

[sandra]

For those in the UK, try to get some Oil of Cassia to use instead of Cinnamon or mixed spice. It is the authentic flavouring but not easy to get. Usually bought from independent Health Food stores - Holland and Barratt don't stock it. Sometimes a pharmacy will sell it. You always have to ask, as it is not usually easily seen. The bottle is very small, you only need add about 1/2 tsp to the mix. Add it to the water to ensure it is diluted properly.

For the enthusiast of the Hot Cross Bun, it is worth it. Also used to flavour Easter Biscuits. Having spoken to bakers in Spain, I don't think you will find it here!

[sandra]

I have just looked at the yeast in Mercadona and I think the info on pack said to crumble it into the flour,  which means it would be used just the same as the instant yeast, so ignore instruction to mix with the water first. It is sold in small packs of 2x25g.

[sandra]

But has anyone bothered to make them?  Or are most of you just looking and dreaming of lovely hot cross buns?  Go on, it isn't difficult, honest! The smell from the kitchen is wonderful when these are baked.

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