Easter buns

Pete's mum invited us to her place for Easter yesterday.  Like I've mentioned in my last post, the food served is the same as in Christmas, minus the Christmas ham.  Also, this time, his mum did all the cooking.  For Christmas, because there were a lot of people invited, we all chipped in to prepare the food.  Since I didn't have to cook anything, I decided to bring something with us.  I was originally thinking of bringing cupcakes or a layered cake, but I happened to watch The Great British Bake Off Easter Special and Paul Hollywood, the tougher and harsher one of the two judges, showed how to make hot cross buns.

I decided to bake those instead since it is Easter.  An Easter-themed dessert would be more appropriate, wouldn't it?  Pete has never heard or seen hot cross buns before, so I had to explain to him what they were.  I haven't seen them here so I don't think they are available.  I have seen those back home but I have never tried those.  I have never baked them before either, but I know there are raisins in them.  And cinnamon.  How can you go wrong with raisins and cinnamon in buns?

I first tried to jot down the recipe and instructions while I was watching the show.  It wasn't easy.  I think I missed some of the measurements for some ingredients and most importantly, I missed some of the tips for shaping the buns.  I always wanted to learn the proper way to shape bread dough.  I was a bit miffed at myself, especially when I only remembered that I could probably find the recipe online after the show.  I could have focused my attention on the program and not worry about writing down the recipe.

Anyway, I checked up on the recipe yesterday morning and luckily I decided to start on the dough an hour in advance.  Usually bread dough needs only two 1hr long proofing but this one needed three.  And the dough was very sticky and wet, especially with the addition of the chopped apples, not a typical ingredient in hot cross buns.  It was tedious since there's the extra proofing, adding the raisins and apples, making the paste to make the cross and a glaze to make the buns look lovely and shiny.  I was very tired after making them but they gave off such a delicious aroma while they were being baked.  And once I brushed on the glaze, they looked so yummy.

When I compared the recipe I hurriedly written with the one online, there were some differences.  In the show, Paul Hollywood didn't mention that the dough needed to proof three times.  That was a major difference.  If I hadn't checked the recipe earlier, I would have been an hour late.  But the good part about online recipes is that some websites allow comments from readers.  I always read through those first to see if the recipes are really any good.  The comments for this recipe were quite good.  Most of the readers were happy with the recipe.  However, they did say that the baking time was shorter than the 20 mins that was stated in the actual recipe.  I checked mine and they were done in 15 mins too.

Apart from that, the recipe is really good.  It's not too difficult, only a bit time consuming.  But that's how it is with bread dough.  Time is a very important ingredient for bread dough and this one produced a very soft bun.  It's still nice and soft even the day after.  I am chomping at one now as I type!  The only thing is that the very dry air here hardened the glaze and made the tops hard.  But with a couple of minutes in the oven, it's nice and soft again.  Oh, and Pete's family at yesterday's Easter lunch loved them as well.