Perhaps not realising my limited kitchen skillz, the Hartley’s team sent me and the Monkeys this lovely hamper packed full of goodies to make our very own hot cross buns.
‘How hard can it be?’ I (somewhat naively) scoffed. On Saturday we were feeling the Easter spirit, and decided to give them a go. I found a simple recipe online, and off we went!
• 500g strong white bread flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 heaped tsp mixed spice
• 50g caster sugar
• 50g unsalted butter
• 200g mixed dried fruit
• 7g sachet dried yeast
• 200ml milk
• 2 eggs
We mixed the flour with the salt, caster sugar, and mixed spice. The girls rubbed in the butter, and tipped in the mixed dried fruit, while I sprinkled the dried yeast into the mix.
I heated milk, added the eggs, and beat the mixture, before the girls helped me add it to the dry ingredients. Next, I divided the dough into nine bun(ish) shaped balls. After leaving to rise for about an hour, I made a paste from plain flour and water and used it to pipe crosses on the top.
They went in the oven at 180 degrees for 15 minutes. When I could see them browning up I whipped them out and brushed them with Hartley’s apricot jam and gave them five more minutes.
TA DAH – here they are! To be honest they came out more like scones than hot cross buns, which I think was because we were sent plain flour, rather than strong white bread flour. Does that sound right, baking peeps?
But they were still yummy, and tasted just like hot cross buns – even if the texture was more dense – and the girls loved them. Lil Sis had hers with butter, while Big Sis slathered hers with some Hartley’s Blueberry Jam.
I tried one of each – purely for research purposes, of course.
• recipe inspiration from BBCGoodFood.com
