THE BEST EVER HOT CROSS BUNS

Glorious spiced fragrant hot cross buns, lightly toasted and topped with a indecent amount of Cornish creamy butter, a wonderful way to celebrate Easter.  These are super easy and un-complicated to make and are of the chart in flavour and spice.  These only take 10 minutes to make and 3 x 1hr proves I followed/tweaked a little from Paul Hollywood's good food recipe

10 minutes hands on / 3 x 1 hour proves / Baking 20 minutes

INGREDIENTS

(makes 15)

500g 00 flour

10g yeast

1 tsp salt

100g caster sugar

300ml warm milk

80g butter melted

1 egg beaten

1 lady grey tea bag

1 apple grated

Zest of one orange

1 tsp heaped ground cinnamon

100g dried fruit

25g mixed peel

100g plain flour

water

1 tbsp apricot jam

Place the flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a mixing bowl, keep the yeast away from the salt, warm the milk and butter together until the butter has melted.  

Make a well in the centre of the flour and add the warm milk and the beaten egg, using a wooden spoon bring the mixture together to form a dough and knead for 5 minutes.  Place in a oiled bowl and cover the top with oiled clingfilm, not touching the dough, place in a warm place to prove for 1 hour.  Take the dried fruit and place in a bowl, add the fragrant teabag and pour over approx 100ml hot water to soften the fruit.

At the first 1 hour prove, mix the cinnamon, apple, orange zest, mixed peel and dried fruit, (drain off the tea) into the dough and leave to prove again for another hour, the dough will be slightly wet and sticky that is good.

After the second 1 hour prove, dust your worktop with flour and tip out your dough, divide the dough into 15 equal ish size balls, I mean you can weight the dough, divide equally but I like to go by eye! Gently form into dough balls, place on a greased baking tray with space around each bun to allow room for expansion, cover with oiled clingfilm loosely and again prove for the final hour.

Pre heat your oven to 200 C / 392 F

Next apply your cross, mix the flour with some water to make a thick paste, fill a pipping bag and pipe on the cross.  

 Bake at 200 degrees for 18-20 minutes.  Once cooked glaze the top with some warm apricot jam, saw in half and pop under the grill to toast, load with butter and I like to pop back under the grill for 30 seconds again to get the mound of butter melted so I will get a crispy but buttery bottom too, making these the best ever hot cross buns, eat immediately.