Orange and Cranberry Hot Cross buns

After my first attempt at these earlier in the week, I have been thinking about, researching and contemplating how to improve them. I am so incredibly happy with these today and I honestly think they are the best ones I have ever eaten!

To top it all off, I knew I was having some Moose Maple Butter delivered this morning, so I wanted them out of the oven so I could slather it on them. This butter is absolutely delicious.....butter mixed with maple syrup and a touch of sea salt and it simply is the perfect accompaniment to the buns. For fairness I did also have a half with normal butter; it was good too, but the Moose Maple butter elevated it to another level.

For this recipe, I based it on Paul Hollywood's classic hot cross buns (from the BBC website - the one in his book is quite different), but made my own adjustments, so I will add my recipe below.

If you have time before Easter, do give these a go. Be aware though, they do take a few hours as they need to prove twice for an hour each time.

In my mind these are the best thing I have made this week!

Orange and Cranberry Hot Cross Buns

For the Buns:

300 ml milk

500 g strong white flour

75 g caster sugar

1 tsp salt

7g sachet fast-action yeast

50 g butter - melted

1 free range egg, beaten

150 g dried cranberries (not fresh ones)

2 oranges, zest of both and juice of one.

1 tsp mixed spice

sunflower oil for greasing the bowl

For the Cross:

75 g plain flour

5 tbsp water

For the Glaze:

1 tbsp caster sugar

1 tbsp boiling water

METHOD:

1. Bring the milk to the boil and then take it off the heat, transfer to a bowl and leave to cool down until it reaches hand temperature. This is very important. Hot milk will kill the yeast, so make sure you let it cool to a just warm temperature.

2. Zest the oranges into a small bowl. In another bowl add the cranberries and the juice of one orange, leave them to soak until step 6.

3. Mix the flour, spices, salt, sugar, yeast, butter and egg together in a bowl and then slowly add the warm milk, mixing until it forms a soft, sticky dough.

4. Tip out the bowl onto a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough for about 5 mins or until is is smooth and elastic. You can of course use the dough hook on an electric mixer, but do the final part out on the bench so it becomes less sticky.

5. Put the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with oiled cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour or until doubled in size. 

6. Tip the dough out of the bowl onto the bench top and knead it to remove any air bubbles. Flatten it out into a rectangular shape and sprinkle the drained (and patted dry) cranberries and orange zest onto the dough. Fold the dough over to incorporate the toppings, and knead so they are well combined.  If you add the fruit into the first knead and prove, I have found it stops the dough rising so well. So adding it in just before the second prove seems to work better.

7. Divide the dough into 12 even sized pieces, and roll each piece into a smooth ball on a lightly floured surface - you shouldn't need much flour at this stage. Also, it's okay to knead these pieces a bit more to shape them. Arrange them onto a tray lined with baking parchment, leaving enough room so that they just touch when they expand and rise (about 1-2cm apart depending on their size).

8. Set aside to prove for another hour. At this stage I placed the tray into a clean plastic shopping bag rather than covering in cling film.

9. Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

10. For the cross, mix the flour with 5 tablespoons of water in a small bowl. Add the water a tablespoon at a time, so that you get the right consistency for a thick paste. Spoon the paste into a disposable piping bag (or ziplock bag) and trim off the bottom of the bag - a small opening is all you need. Pipe along each row of buns in one direction only, then come back and do the opposite direction to make crosses, all in one go. Don't do individual buns, it will look messy and take so much longer.

11. Bake for 20-25 mins on the middle shelf in the oven, or until golden brown.

12. Mix the caster sugar and water together until the sugar dissolves, and then when they buns are straight out of the oven brush them liberally with the glaze so the tops are all covered.

13. Gently rip the buns apart to eat and enjoy!

 

Utter, utter deliciousness!

Happy Easter everyone!