Lent baking challenge Wk 6

Week 6/ Hot Cross Buns

It's Holy Week, so what else could we cook apart from Hot Cross Buns! The great thing about making a yeasted bun, is that it’s something you spend time with, and then come back to, over time. On Good Friday, some  church traditions have a service between 12 and 3, marking the hours Jesus spent on the cross. 

You might like to spend that time prayerfully making hot cross buns, with each time you come back to the baking, stepping back into the story, re-immersing yourself in the pain and the wonder of Good Friday.

Here's what you'll need:
Recipe -

50g of butter 

300ml of milk
500g of strong bread flour
1tsp of salt

75g of caster sugar (or what sugar you have available)

a sachet of yeast

1 egg
1 - 2 cups of dried fruit - currants, raisins, sultanas, mixed peel 

(whatever's to hand and however much you want to use...if you like really fruity hot cross buns, 2 cups it is! 

Though mind how you go with the rise, if you make it too heavy)
1 small, roughly chopped apple (or less, or not at all, just depends on how you like it)
1tsp mixed spice - add a dash of ginger to taste

Method
Turn oven to 220C or GM7 

Put milk in pan and heat
Add butter and melt
Leave to cool to body temp.
Fill a mixing bowl with 500g of strong bread flour (I’d choose white, though it depends on what you can get! If you can’t find bread flour, plain flour will work; the buns just won’t rise as much).
Add in salt, caster sugar, and  sachet of yeast.

As you add the dry ingredients, think through what you are laying at the foot of the cross today.

Make a well in the centre, pour in the warm milk and butter, and add an egg.
Mix this well, first with a wooden spoon, then with your hands, until you have a sticky dough.
Sprinkle some flour onto a surface, and knead dough, by stretching and folding, until it’s turned nice and silky and pulls out smoothly.
Put in a bowl, cover [with a plastic bag]
Leave for an hour - so that the yeast can begin to work and make the dough rise.

Spend some of this time prayerfully reading the events of Good Friday
as recounted in one of the Gospels

When the hour is up, add the dried fruit and spices
I’ll leave it to you to put in as much dried fruit as you fancy - I seldom measure it anyway and tend to go by 'feel'!
Knead in to the dough.
Shape the dough into balls, and place them on a floured baking tray.
Cover and leave for another hour to rise.
Mix up flour and water paste, and use this to pipe (if you have the equipment) or dollop (if you don’t!) a cross over each bun.

Remember Jesus and his words on the cross, and quietly thank him for his sacrifice.

Bake in oven for about twenty minutes until they look golden brown.
Once out of the oven, gently heat some marmalade or apricot jam
Paint over the top of buns to make a sticky glaze.

Enjoy, buttered if you like, with a cup of tea, and sing or listen to your favourite songs or hymns about the cross as you eat them.