Traditional (Easy!) Hot Cross Buns for Good Friday

Hi everyone,

I'm back with a tutorial to teach you to make Hot Cross Buns for Good Friday!

Hot Cross Buns
Recipe adapted from Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management (1861) by way of The Cook and The Curator
Makes 12
Time: 3 hours (active time is about 20 minutes spread out in a few short bursts, the rest of this is for the dough to rise and the buns to bake!)

• 2.5 cups flour (you can sub up to half whole wheat!)
• scant 1/2 c brown sugar 
• 1/2 c currants, raisins, or other dried fruit
• 3 tsp candied citrus peel or 1 tsp lemon, orange, or grapefruit zest (grated peel)
• 1 envelope (7g) yeast
• 1 tsp allspice (or if you don't have that you can sub cinnamon or pumpkin spice, etc. Important caveat: if you use nutmeg or cloves just use a pinch, a teaspoon will be way too much of these very strong flavors!) 
• pinch of salt
• 1 c. warm (but not hot) milk
• 4 tbsp (half a stick) butter
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp boiling water

1. Whisk together the flour, brown sugar, dried fruit, zest or candied peel, allspice, yeast, and salt. 
2. Pour warm milk into the dry ingredients and stir just the middle (leaving a ring of dry flour around the outside) until you have something resembling pancake batter. 
3. Set the bowl over a pan of hot water (with the stove off!) and let it rest for half an hour until the yeast starts to work.  It will be puffy and you may see bubbles. 
4. Heat the oven to 355F
5. Melt the butter and pour it into the bowl.  Stir together until a soft dough forms.
6. Knead until the dough is soft and elastic.  Add more flour or milk as needed. Pat the dough ball down slightly into a disc. 
7. Slice the dough (like a pizza!) into 12 wedges and form each one into a ball.  Place these on a prepared cookie sheet (either cover with parchment or silpat, or grease the cookie sheet with butter or spray), with a bit of space between.
8. Leave them in a warm spot to rise for 30 minutes.
9. Cut crosses into the tops of the buns with a serrated knife, then bake them for about 30 minutes or until they are beautifully golden brown and a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean. 
10. While the buns are still hot, mix the boiling water and sugar to make a glaze (the sugar should dissolve). Brush the glaze over the tops of the buns.  As they cool the glaze will dry to give them beautiful, shiny tops.

Congratulations! You made hot cross buns! I like to eat these toasted with butter, but you can also eat them as is.  They also look nice served as rolls on the Easter table or I have heard they make nice French Toast on Holy Saturday morning! I have even heard of some friends leaving a hot cross bun  as a thank you for the Easter Bunny! If you aren't happy with the crosses (if they don't show up as much as you would like) once the hot cross buns are completely cooled, you can mix powdered sugar with just enough milk to dissolve it and drizzle that with a fork over the cross to make it stand out more.  Let me know in the comments if you tried it, how it went, or how you ate your hot cross buns!