The Lazy Baker's Hot Cross Buns

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 The Lazy Baker's Hot Cross Buns

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Make the dough the night before and be sure it's in a nice big bowl (so it doesn't overflow!) and well covered (no one likes bug-buns!)

Yeast Mixture:
2 7g sachets of dried yeast
1 tsp white sugar
1 3/4 cups of warm milk (not hot!)

Mix above ingredients together and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes to get the yeast going and the milk frothy.

Dough Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar (yes, more sugar!)
a pinch of salt
50g butter - softened (not melted though!)
4 cups good quality plain flour
1/2 cup sultanas (or you could add some currants as well!)
1 tbsp chopped mixed peel
1 egg
ground cinnamon, nutmeg and mixed spice - a good shake of each or about 1/4 tsp if you are shy

Make the dough:
Sift the salt and flour together. Sprinkle in the 1/2 cup of sugar. Now add the cinnamon, nutmeg and mixed spice. Rub in the butter next until well mixed. Plonk the egg in with the milky/yeasty mixture - and whisk with a fork to combine. Now pour the eggy/milky/yeasty mixture into the floury/buttery mix. Add the sultanas and peel. It might be quite sticky. Flour your hands and push on. Sticky is good. Sticky means they will end up moist and bubbly. Knead together with springy, spirit fingers until it's all nicely combined and looks like a nice big lump of speckled dough.

First Rise (the night before!) :
Place into a greased bowl and sprinkle with some cinnamon and nutmeg. I brushed mine gently with some melted butter to keep it moist. You might like to do that if you can be bothered. Allow to rise covered with a clean cloth (until doubled in size). It will rise more quickly in a warm, draught free area.

Here is where you cover them and let it sit overnight. If you want the 'do it in one day' recipe look here!

Get up and shape your buns: 
Good morning! I like your hair! Okay. Make a cup of coffee. Preheat your oven to 200C. Next, turn the dough out gently onto a floured surface. Don't knead it! Just carefully cut it into rough square-ish pieces around 4cm square (or bigger if you like big buns!) Gently push them into a nice bun shape with your finger tips, as though you are a very gentle dough sculptor. You should get about 16 or so buns from this - enough for 2 trays - don't worry if you get less (but don't try for 20 or they'll be TINY!) Grease your trays and pop the buns on - a little way apart - they will join together as they rise and bake.

Recovery Rise:
Now cover these nearly oven-ready buns with a couple of tea towels and let them rise again for half an hour or so in a warm spot. They may not double in size, but they will have time to recover and get ready to rise more in the oven. 

While you are waiting you could pop over here and have a bit of a read?

Make the flour paste and get piping if you want traditional crosses:
Mix half a cup of plain flour with four or five tablespoons of water and pipe onto the uncooked buns in crosses (use a piping bag or a plastic bag with the corner snipped off a teensy bit)

Uncover the buns and brush them with egg wash:

Mix 1 Egg Yolk with 1 Tbsp Milk to make 'egg wash'. Now brush your buns all over with this mixture using a pastry brush. Be sure to avoid your crosses if you added them! This egg wash will help make your buns a nice burnished golden colour!

Buns in the Oven:
Put your buns in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Put them as high up as you can in your oven, allowing room for the buns to rise upwards too. Keep an eye on them while the cook, they are a bit prone to burn on the bottoms. If they do, they'll still be yummy, but obviously we want crisp bottoms, not burnt bottoms!

Make a pot of tea

Next:
While they are cooking make the sugary glaze to make your buns sticky! 

Mix 100g sugar with 50ml water in a pot on the stove. When your buns are ready, boil the sugar and water mix up and pour or brush it onto the just baked buns! Not too much, though, just enough to make them shiny and delicious! Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar if you would like! Maybe some nutmeg too?!

Icing Crosses for Hot Cross Buns : instead of the traditional floury crosses :
Mix 1 cup of sifted icing sugar with 1 dessert spoon full of warm milk (or enough to make a piping consistency) - pipe onto your warm (not hot!) buns!

Variation for Fussy Kids:

Omit the sultanas and peel and add 150g of choc chips!

NMAA Banana Loaf :: from NMAA Cooks

125g butter
2/3 cup raw sugar
1 egg
1 cup wholemeal plain flour plus
1/2 cup wholemeal self raising flour mixed with a pinch of salt
1 1/4 cups mashed banana
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup yoghurt or 1/4 cup milk mixed with some lemon juice (to make buttermilk!)

Grease a loaf tin and heat your oven to 375f

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and mix well. Now mix the mashed banana, vanilla and yoghurt/buttermilk together. Add this mix and the flour alternately to the creamed butter until all is mixed in. Pour into a greased tin and bake for 40 - 50 minutes! Cool for ten minutes then turn out onto a cooling rack.

I sprinkled the top with cinnamon, nutmeg and brown sugar before I baked it - for a bit of a spicey crunchy top!

Overnight Rise Casserole-Dish-Baked Bread

Makes one big loaf - or break dough into 3 sections before putting it in the dish and you'll have 3 pull-apart loaves


6 cups of flour
1 tsp salt
3 cups of tepid water
1 tsp yeast
1 tsp sugar
a sprinkle of polenta - optional

Mix the yeast with the water and sugar and set aside for 5 minutes. In a mixer with a dough hook (or a big bowl with a wooden spoon), combine the flour, salt and the yeasty water. Mix well. It will be lumpy and a bit sloppy. Sloppy is good.

Cover with plastic wrap and leave overnight to prove. Somewhere cool is good - the fridge is fine too.

In the morning - punch the dough down and flop it onto a lightly floured benchtop. Knead it as best you can for a minute or two. Grease a heavy, ovenproof casserole dish (round is best - ceramic or heavy metal is the go) The dish needs to have sides at least 5cm high (or higher!) for this to work well and for the bread to rise up (rather then spread out) Sprinkle the dish with polenta if desired. Carefully pop the dough into the greased dish. Dust the top with flour.

Cover with a clean teatowel and let rise for a couple more hours in a draught-free spot.

Heat your oven to 400 degrees. Then pop the risen dish full of dough into the hot oven. Bake for around 30 minutes, or until golden and hollow-sounding when you tap it. Turn out and eat it up! Yum!

Soft and Sweet Dinner Rolls

via


6 cups of plain flour
1/4 cup of sugar
1 tsp salt
4 tsp dried yeast
1/2 cup soft butter
1 egg

makes 30 more-ish rolls

Dissolve yeast in 2 1/2 cups of lukewarm tap water. In your mixer using a dough hook, plonk the flour, beaten egg, sugar, salt and butter - begin to mix it up gently, pouring in the water/yeast slowly. Knead until smooth and elastic. (You can do this by hand too - it'll just take longer).

Leave to rise for a couple of hours. Then punch down and knead again until smooth and elastic. Let it recover for 15 mins and then split your dough into 3. Each third will make 10 dinner rolls - so divvy up the dough into tens. To shape the rolls - flatten each little piece of dough and then roll it into a 'roll like' shape, tucking the ends under and putting it seam/join side down on a well greased oven tray. You'll need a couple of trays - be sure to grease them.

Let your dough rise again for an hour or so - until the rolls are a bit puffed up and nearly twice as big. Bake in a HOT oven for around 15 minutes until nicely browned.

Pip's Famous Pane Toscano

baguette earrings from here

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How Pip Makes Bread

You DO need 10 cups of flour.

It makes 3 free-form loaves.

Make the starter first - it's easy.

1 tsp dry yeast

1/2 cup warm water - NOT too hot

3 cups of white flour (bakers flour or unbleached)

1 cup cold water

Add the yeast to the warm water. Wait till it goes frothy. Then mix in the flour and the rest of the water. I do this in the Kitchen Aid or Food Processor. Put in a DEEP bowl in the fridge - with plenty of room for it to grown. Leave until tomorrow.

Make the dough - it's easy.

This will make about 3 small loaves.

1 tsp dry yeast

1/2 cup warm water - NOT too hot

7 cups of white flour (bakers or unbleached)

1 tbsp sea salt

3 cups of cold water

a splash of olive oil

HALF of the starter you made (freeze the rest for a jump start to the next batch - you'll thank me later*)

Polenta or flour to stop the bread sticking to the trays

(* you'll need to defrost it to room temperature before use)

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water as before. Put the flour into a really big mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the yeast/water mix, salt, cold water and starter (remember you're only using half of the starter we made). Now mix it all together - you can do this in a KitchenAid on slow (but be prepared for a few floury clouds!) - or by hand. I don't use my hands - just a wooden spoon and plenty of elbow grease - it's a really sticky dough.

Mix it until it's all clinging together and not just sticking to the sides of the bowl. But don't agonise too much - 5 minutes 'by hand' with a wooden spoon or 2 minutes in the Mixer sounds great. Tip it out onto a floured surface and shape into a rough ball - clean your bowl thoroughly - oil the clean bowl with olive oil and pop the dough back in. Cover with a towel and put in a warm, draught-free place.

TURN YOUR OVEN ONTO 400 degrees F or 200 degrees C.

When the dough has doubled - punch it down (just think of all the things that are making you cross and lay into it a bit) and let it rise again until doubled. Then turn it out onto a floury surface and cut into three (or you can do what Amy does. Keep the dough bowl in the fridge and just cut off what you want each time you need bread! The dough will improve with age and your bread will be slightly different each time!)

Sprinkle two good sized oven trays with polenta or flour and pop your just-cut freeform loaves onto them. Sprinkle the tops with flour for good luck and good looks. Bake in a HOT oven for 20 to 30 minutes - checking towards the end. If they are ready they will be golden and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. I often take them off their trays for the last 5 minutes for extra good crust action!

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as seen here