Hot Cross Buns

I made these in early March... a little early for the Easter festivities maybe, but I do love my hot cross buns and I was excited :-)

Not so quick but it is fairly easy to make if you've got some time up your sleave.

Ingredients: Makes 16
- 1/3 cup caster sugar
- 4.5 tsp dry yeast
- 1 1/2 cup warm milk
- 600g plain flour
- pinch salt
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp mixed spice
- 60g butter, chopped
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 2/3 cup sultanas

Paste for crosses
- 1/2 cup plain flour
- 4 tbsp water
- 2 tsp caster sugar

Glaze
- 1 tbsp very hot water
- 1 tsp gelatine powder
- 1 tbsp caster sugar

Method:
Step 1: Combine caster sugar, yeast and milk in a bowl, stir until smooth, cover and rest in a warm place for 10min or until frothy. Its a little hard to see in the photo but the one on the right is frothy...

Step 2: Sift flour, salt, cinnamon and mixed spice into a large bowl. Use your fingertips to rub butter into the flour mixture - be warned, this is tiring! My fingers start to ache after a minute or two, and there seems to be a never-ending supply of butter that needs to be rubbed in! But stick with it, you'll get there... eventually!  And then you'll end up with something like this:

Step 3: Stir in yeast mixture, egg and sultanas until well combined. Cover and rest in a warm place for 45 minutes or until mixture has doubled in size.

Step 4: Preheat oven to 220degreesCelcius.

Step 5: Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic (about 5min). Divide dough into 16 even pieces and roll into balls. Place balls into a lightly greased square cake pan lined with baking paper. Rest covered for 10-15min or until balls have risen to the top of the pan.

Step 6: Combine paste ingredients in a small bowl and, using a piping bag or a sandwich bag with the corner snipped off, pipe crosses over the buns.

Step 7: Bake for about 20minutes or until well browned and cooked. Combine glaze ingredients in a small bowl and stir until sugar is dissolved. Brush buns with warm glaze and cool on a cake rack.

Mrs Pinks' little piece of advice: if you're planning on packing your hot cross buns into a container for storage or transport, I would consider holding off on the glaze. Once you glaze them, the buns become quite sticky and will stick to each other or whatever else they touch.