After my first lot of Easter baking I was really getting into the Easter spirit so I decided to try my hand at some hot cross buns. I’ve never made them before, probably because it always seemed like a lot of effort, especially when you can buy Pandoro ones in Wellington which are the best I reckon!
This however, I thought I definitely wanted to try them, especially after doing my bread and yeast class at Careme cooking school in Martinborough. They weren’t as hard as I thought they might be, a little time consuming as you have to let the dough rise and proof but actually fairly simple, especially with my KitchenAid! Seeing as this is a chocolate blog and you can’t get enough chocolate at Easter, I decided to go with a chocolate hot cross bun recipe from the Lindt website. I modified it slightly because I still like a bit of fruit in mine, so here is my chocolate and raisin version which turned out really well, they were a very yummy breakfast treat over Easter!
- [b]Buns[/b]
- 3 1/3 cups plain flour
- 2 1/2 Tbpn brown sugar
- 2 1/2 tspn dry yeast
- 1 tspn salt
- 2 tspn mixed spice
- 1 tspn cinnamon
- 1 tspn nutmeg
- 280mL water, lukewarm
- 2 1/2 Tbspn vegetable oil
- 200g chocolate
- 1 cup raisins
- [b]Chocolate Cross[/b]
- 2 Tbspn cocoa powder
- 3 Tbspn plain flour
- 50mL water
- [b]Glaze[/b]
- 3 Tbspn caster sugar
- 50mL water
- 1 Tbspn honey
- 1 tspn mixed spice
- 1/2 tspn cinnamon
- 1/2 tspn nutmeg
- Proof the yeast by mixing together the water, brown sugar and yeast into a small bowl and leaving for 10 minutes, or until the yeast puffed up.
- Pour the yeast mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment (or a large bowl and use a hand mixer fitted with the dough hooks). Add to this the flour, salt, spices and oil and mix all the ingredients together. Once the dough is combined, mix on medium speed for a further 3-4 minutes or until the dough is smooth and silky. Mix in the chocolate chips and raisins.
- Cover the bowl with a tea towel and rest in a warm place for an hour or until the dough has double in size.
- Grease and line a baking tray.
- Punch the dough down lightly to release the air inside. Pull and stretch the dough a few times to remove any remaining pockets of air.
- Divide the dough into 12 (I managed to make 13) even sized portions and work each portion into a small bread roll.
- Place the rolls fairly close together on the baking tray so that they join when proofing and baking.
- Set aside to proof for 45 minutes or until nicely risen.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C.
- Mix together the ingredients for the cross. Add a little more flour or water if necessary to create a thick, creamy texture.
- Pipe the crosses onto the proofed buns either using a disposable piping bag and tip or cut a small corner off a glad bag.
- Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through.
- Whilst the buns are cooking, place the glaze ingredients into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Allow to boil for 30 seconds and then remove from the heat.
- Brush the glaze onto the buns as soon as they come out of the oven. Enjoy whilst they are warm, so yum!
