hot cross buns

Hot cross buns,
Hot cross buns,
one ha' penny,
two ha' penny,
hot cross buns.

If you have no daughters,
give them to your sons,
one ha' penny,
two ha' penny,
Hot Cross Buns


It's that time of the year again. No, not buy a solid pound of chocolate shaped like anything from a guitar to your more typical bunny time...well yeah it is that time again, but I'm talking about flooding of hot cross buns into the supermarkets for Good Friday. We always had a package of these lying around the house and 90% of the time they would only have raisins. Why, well my father doesn't eat the candied peel, or currant based versions. This, in my opinion, is a good thing as it stops him from buying too many. Thinking I would treat him with a fresh homemade raisin version, I did just that.

The last time I made hot cross buns I was just a young boy helping his mother, so I really had no idea where to begin. I did a bit of searching around and found a fairly straight forward recipe I could put together in an afternoon. The results were good. The dough was light, fluffy and a 1/2 cup of raisins for 12 buns was almost perfect. At least I think they were; I only scored two before they disappeared. A quick mix of ingredients left me with this.


After a quick rise and shape I was left with this.

And after the buns doubled nicely in the afternoon sun, I let them spend a few minutes in the oven. I decorated them with an icing based cross, instead of the flour/water paste which made them a little more decadent. Oh yeah. I forgot the egg wash in case you are wondering why they look so pale, and the odd shaped ones were the results of my exact scale measuring as I ended up with a few bits left over which I tried to refold in a ball.