Hot Cross Buns

 Hot Cross Buns

Hot cross buns!  Hot cross buns!

One a penny two a penny - Hot cross buns!

If you have no daughters, give them to your sons

One a penny two a penny - Hot cross buns!

(From an old English nursery rhyme)

 American version ingredients

 Hot cross buns are those little British sweet fruit buns that pop-up at Easter time.  Traditionally they are decorated with a cross on top and eaten on Good Friday.  I've wanted to make them for the longest time. Even though I love to bake, I don't bake with yeast and that's why I've shied away from making them.

  This year though after watching Delia Smith's Cookery School Hot Cross Buns video, I decided to give them a go.  The trickiest part (for me) was determining which yeast to use for Delia's recipe here in America.   

Here are my American conversions for the recipe:

Strong flour =  Gold Medal all purpose flour

Mixed spice =  Pumpkin pie spice

Caster sugar = C & H Baker's Sugar

Easy Bake Yeast = Fleischmann's Rapid Rise Instant Yeast

 Look mom, no seams!

 To learn more about hot cross buns, I also watched a Martha Stewart video.  In Martha's video I learned an easy way to roll and shape the buns thanks to chef John Barricelli who is a third generation baker.  Check out his video with Martha for some great tips.  

 The Cross

In my American home kitchen, I baked my buns in a 375F oven for 15 minutes and ended up with excellent results.  I opted to forgo the traditional method of baking the cross on the buns and decorated my baked buns with an icing cross instead.  Here's my recipe:

Icing recipe

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 tsp lemon juice

Let stand 5 minutes to thicken and then ice your buns.

Happy Easter!

Traditionally hot cross buns are served with a spread of butter.  We loved them.  These will now be an Easter holiday tradition for us!