Since Hot Cross Buns are traditionally made on Good Friday, we couldn’t miss out on that. Any excuse for food is a good excuse. Most commonly made with raisins or currants, ours are made with a mix of dried cranberries, dried blueberries, and raisins, adapted from a highly rated recipe on allrecipes.com, with the icing altered as well. Oh yea, and I’m lazy so I changed this into a mixer recipe where all the kneading is done by machine. Sing it with me now….Hot Cross Buns…Hot Cross Buns…

Hot Cross Buns

  • 4+ cups all-purpose flour, divided
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt (I’d up it to 1 teaspoon next time.)
  • 1 cup fat-free milk
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 3/4 cup of any or all (raisins, dried cranberries, dried blueberries)
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 2 tablespoons cold water

Icing

  • 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
  • 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon fat-free milk
  • 1 teaspoon almond extract

Instructions –
1. In a large mixing bowl of a stand mixer, combine 2 cups flour, sugar, yeast, cinnamon and salt. In a saucepan, heat milk and butter to 120 degrees F-130 degrees F. Add to dry ingredients; beat just until moistened. Add eggs;beat until smooth. Stir in raisins and dried cranberries, and 2 more cups flour to form a soft dough. Switch to a dough hook and knead until smooth and elastic, about 4-6 minutes, adding a little more flour if necessary. Place in a bowl coated with nonstick cooking spray, turning once to coat top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

2. Punch dough down; turn onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into 18 pieces; shape each into a ball. Place in two 9-in. round baking pans coated with nonstick cooking spray. Using a sharp knife, cut a cross on top of each roll. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

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3. Beat egg yolk and water; brush over buns. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool.

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4. Combine icing ingredients; pipe crosses onto rolls.

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posted by jessica at 12:24 AM Filed under Bread, Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.