Hot Cross Buns

Hello, foodies!
So this week we have two special posts! This one is for good Friday and tomorrow there be another one for Easter Saturday/Sunday!
Hope you enjoy!

The recipe is founded in the RTE Guide Taste magazine, recipe is orginally from BBC Food by James Martin.
With this hot cross, bun is eaten and sold for Good Friday as they were traditional for Roman Catholics to eat them on that day as it was the day they fast eating no meat.
This was my first time ever making them, for my first time the dough was perfect but I struggled with getting 12 balls of dough out of the one and had uneven sizes and cut the crossed too deep and made some of the piping difficult for me.

Ingredients:
Dough:
450g of strong white flour. Have some of the dusting
2 sachets of easy blend yeast
50g caster sugar
150ml of warm milk
1 egg, beaten
50g unsalted butter (melted) Have some extra for greasing
oil for greasing

Spices/Fruit:
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
100g currants

To decorate:
4 Tablespoons of plain flour
2 Tablespoons of graduated sugar

Method:
1. Put flour, yeast, caster sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt into large and with the spices and dried fruit. Mix well. Make a well in the centre, pour in the warm milk, 50ml warm water, the beaten egg, and the melted butter. Mix everything together to form a dough. Start with a wooden spoon and finish with hands.
Tip: If dough too dry just add a little bit of warm water and too wet add more flour

2. Knead the dough on floured surface until dough becomes smooth and springy. Transfer to a clean, lightly greased bowl and cover loosely with a damp towel. Leave in a warm room and prove for one hour,

3. Remove dough from bowl, knead again for a few seconds and roll into a long sausage shape and portion it evenly to 12. (This is where I struggled) Shape into smooth round and place on baking sheet greased tray (with the butter) leaving room between each bun.

4, Use small knife and score a cross on top of each bun, cover with damp tea towel again and prove for another 20 minutes until doubled the size again. Heat oven for 200*C/180*C fan.

5.When buns are ready to bake, mix the plain flour with juse enough water to make a thick paste. Spoon into a piping bag and pipe a cross into the crosses you cut eariler. Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden and sound hollow (tap on the bottom)

Below in a shot of some of the crossbuns.

That's it!

Thank you for reading and I see you all on Saturday again! ;)

PB x