Adventures in bakery - hot cross buns

[louiselux]

Using Delia's recipe I made a good start by forgetting to add the yeast, only remembering at this point:





So I was hot and cross by this stage. Unlike the buns. Haha. I left it there and began all over again, making a new batch of dough. Luckily I had lots of everything. While the new dough was rising, the idea of wasting all that other dough really began to get to me, so I decided to make some Easter flatbreads. I just squashed the dough out into flattish discs and cooked it with a little bit of butter in a pan. I broke my favourite spatula - I snapped it! Clearly I don't know my own strength.





They were pretty nice actually, for a flatbread. Eaten during Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I never realised how much make up Johnny Depp wore in that film. Finally, the buns were ready:




I made the crosses just by cutting into the dough, but this method failed almost totally. Visually they are a bit of a mess. Delia's suggestion is to use 'strips of wet pastry'. Right.

Verdict: 'quite nice'. They tasted great and the inner dough was lovely, but I think they were cooked too long or I made them too small, or perhaps the yeast was old because they were a bit tough on the outside, where I wanted them to be more squidgy. I glazed them with water and sugar and that helped a bit.

Not bad for a first go round, but I'm not wowed. It would've been more successful as a loaf, I think.

Comments

[cicer.livejournal.com]

Hot cross buns are tough to make. I tried to make some last Easter, and they didn't turn out quite right either. Making the crosses is tricky; I tried cutting with a knife too and it didn't really work. Next time I might try just snipping them with shears to get a cleaner, deeper cut. They look nice, though! The flatbreads look cute too. Did you mold them somehow? That one looks like it's got a bit of a shape to it!

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who has problems. The shop bought ones are so deliciously squidgy, unlike mine, which are more like rock cakes. Oh feel my disappointment!

I shaped the flatbreads by hand, a bit like making a pizza base.

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

Thank you! You've just reminded me to make an Antique Bakery request at Springkink!

Mmmm, buns. Buns are good whatever shape they end up.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Yay, a job well done in that case!

[avierra.livejournal.com]

A lot of places here frost them and use the frosting to make the cross.

These look really good, and I am really hungry right now. ;_;

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

*sends you buns through the powah of the internets*

[chomiji]

Oooh, how very tasty-looking and -sounding!

The recipe that I had seen for these previously (the 1960s Time-Life volume Cooking of the British Isles) recommended rolling small bits of dough into slim ropes and pressing them onto the top of the buns, with dabs of water to make the crosses adhere, if needed - I think this may be similar to what the "wet pastry" idea meant.

[emungere.livejournal.com]

Oooh, they look yummy! I have seen them with crosses made of frosting or glaze. Maybe that would be easier. Or are they not meant to be sweet? *has never had hot cross buns*

[trensaddiction.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on the buns! I've always found them to be one of the trickier breads out there, for all that they seem pretty simple from a recipe standpoint.

Three things I've come to conclude in my various attempts. First, I agree with those who advocate using slim strips of the dough to form a cross - every cutting method I've tried inevitably produces rolls like yours which, while rather attractive (in my opinion) aren't really "crossed". Also, cutting increases the surface area which can lead to greater dryness, which brings me to point two: traditional hot cross buns only ever seem to be soft and squidgy when hot. While I love them fresh from the oven (and for perhaps 20 minutes thereafter) as soon as they've come to room temperature, the density and hardness become rapidly unappealing. I'm sure there must be a recipe for which this is not the case, but myself, I've yet to find it. To revive a set of cooled buns, wrapping tightly in foil and reheating in a low oven seems to work pretty well, though, so it's not like you have to eat the entire batch right away or waste it :). And finally, for soft exteriors rather than hard crusts, I find that dipping the buns in glaze the moment they emerge from the oven (and as mentioned above, not cutting the crosses) seems to yield a pretty tender exterior.

As an aside, your hot cross flatbread looks weirdly yummy. Sorry to hear about your poor spatula, though. :)

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Dang, I thought I'd replied to this but apparently I never did.

This is exactly what happened with mine. Nice for about half ab hour and then they seemed to solidify. The next day they were so hard as to be thoroughly unappetising, so I gave them to the birds!

I'm going to experiment more with these though, perhaps making a non easter version, maybe something more summery. :)

[gen50.livejournal.com]

congratulations for trying.
someone once said, trying is half the battle.
and for a first time, rather looks good

i have never tried bread.

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

ooh impressive! very nice looking flatbread! It does look delicious!

And ... hot cros buns ARE hard to make! And your's look really yummy in any case! I'm sorry I have no other helpful things to say here!

[kispexi2.livejournal.com]

They look pretty yummy. Did they smell nice? I think the smell is very important with HXBs.

Also, randomly, Easter Biscuits have finally made it to Scotland! Yay! (I'd been missing them so badly, last year I was reduced to making my own).

[toscas-kiss.livejournal.com]

Well I'm impressed! Baking is hard. They look very tasty. :-)