So considering the time of year, coming into Easter,
we're going to make some hot cross buns
with a lovely and rich, sweet brioche-style dough.
And then flavoured with a little bit of spice,
a little bit of allspice, cinnamon.
We're going to add some orange zest, a little bit of vanilla
and some dried fruits.
For this recipe, we are going to be using
500 grams of strong flour.
To flavour our dough, we are literally adding in
about a half of teaspoon of ground cinnamon.
A half a teaspoon of allspice.
And about a teaspoon and a half of vanilla extract.
So you've got those lovely, kind of warm spices.
And then just for a little bit of citrus,
we're adding in the zest of half an orange.
So it just gives a lovely freshness.
You do need that little bit of spice for a hot cross bun
but the addition of vanilla, the lemon, or orange
whichever you prefer, completely optional.
So with this recipe, we're actually going to use
just a mixer with a dough-hook.
It's a wetter dough and it'll make our lives a little bit easier.
Simply add in one egg.
A teaspoon of salt.
And we're going for 50 grams of brown sugar,
just to give that little bit of sweetness to it.
And then just to enrich your dough, that little bit further,
we're actually using milk.
So we warm it slightly, just to take the chill off.
Again, I'm just going to pour that straight in.
And for 500 grams of flour,
we're using about 15 grams of fresh yeast.
Feel free to use some dried, absolutely fine.
For dried yeast, you're looking at between 5-7 grams of dried yeast.
Once we've got all our ingredients in,
you're going to start the mixer on a minimum speed.
Just let the dough come together.
We're not cranking up too fast,
we don't want to create too much heat in the dough.
So...
The ingredients sometimes often just catch around the side of the bowl.
So just get in with a spatula
just to loosen the flour,
for your dough to come together.
Continue kneading.
So our dough is slowly coming together.
You're going to find that the dough is quite wet,
is quite a soft, sticky dough.
But don't worry, that's exactly what we're looking for.
Particularly with this one, because it's a bit of indulgence,
a bit of sweetness, we want to have
that lovely soft velvetiness of pastry within our dough.
You'll always find working with enriched doughs,
no matter what it is,
either by hand or with a mixer, mixing time is always longer.
Big thing is be persistent, stick with it, it will come together.
Once the dough starts to come cleanly away
from the side of the bowl,
we're going to incorporate and knead in some butter.
So the butter is not melted, it's at room temperature,
and the idea is we drop it in in little cubes,
so it kneads into the dough.
So we've managed to work our butter in.
You can see the dough is lovely and smooth, lovely and elastic.
Lovely and shiny, it's got a little velvet finish to it.
So just to finish off our dough now,
we're going to incorporate our dried fruit,
so we've some cranberries, some raisins, some mixed peel.
So very slowly then...
..we're going to start mixing in our dried fruits.
Just enough to distribute them and spread them throughout the dough.
So when it comes to handling and working with a softer dough,
if you actually take a little rub of oil
and rub it over your hands, you'll find the dough
much easier to handle and much easier to manipulate.
And take a bowl and get a little drop of oil on the inside...
..and just rub it all around.
The idea is this stops the dough from sticking,
so when it comes to getting your dough out later,
it just makes your life an awful lot easier.
We're simply going to pop your dough in and leave again to prove,
to ferment, to allow the yeast to get to work.
So we're going to let this prove for an hour and a half to two hours.
So just cover it over - you can cover it with a damp tea-towel,
you can wrap it in clingfilm, and leave it to prove.
You can see your dough, it's alive and well.
We're simply turning our dough straight out...
..onto the table.
This is a little bit of a softer dough,
so we might use a tiny bit more flour on the table as we work it.
Like we've done with all our breads,
we're simply knocking our dough back.
We're knocking the air from it.
We're equalising the internal temperature.
We're hoping our initial cycle
will create a new one.
So now what we need to do is, we need to portion our dough.
So just by kind of cutting it and stretching it out,
it allows you much easier to eye,
so you're not just kind of cutting lumps and pieces off it.
I recommend using the scales if you're not used to portioning dough.
So we want about 90 grams, is a really nice portion.
Even as you cut into the dough,
you can see there is a good spread of fruit throughout it.
That's exactly what we want.
This is going to give us about a dozen, in this case.
It looks like a baker's dozen.
What I want you to do now is roll them, to ruffle them around.
Try and resist that temptation to cover the entire table
with loads and loads of flour.
Because you think it's helping, but it's not, it's hindering you.
We need the dough to grip that table.
If you put in loads of flour,
you'll find the dough slides rather than actually rolling.
Because the dough is a little softer,
best thing is to flour your hand.
So when you're rolling dough, you're working it from here into here.
So it rolls in the palm of your hand.
Sitting across your knuckles, apply pressure.
Push the dough into the table, a big circle.
Keep your fingertips on that table, a little bit faster.
You should be left with a nice little ball.
Eventually, you'll do it with two hands.
So we're simply going to take our little baking tray,
which we've just lined with a little parchment paper,
just to ensure our dough doesn't stick.
A tiny dusting of flour.
I'm just going to give it a second little roll,
to tighten it up even further, which gives our dough a better shape.
So these again will prove about another hour,
by which time then, they're going to double in size
and then we're going to ply it across just before we bake them off.
They've been proving beautifully,
and you can see they've pretty much doubled in size.
So just before they hit the oven,
I'm giving them a nice brush of egg-wash.
Just a little beaten egg with a little pinch of salt.
Just a pinch of salt helps to break down the protein in the egg-white.
It's not quite as stringy then when you're trying to brush it on.
A nice brush all over helps to give it
a nice golden finish as it bakes.
It gives your hot cross bun a beautiful shine.
The great thing when it comes to bread-making and baking,
is every time you do it, you're learning.
So don't worry if they don't come out perfect the first time,
and each time you do it, you're getting better and better.
Believe me, you should've seen the first few loaves I ever baked.
I'm pretty sure if I looked at them now, they'd be pretty horrific.
So we can't call it a hot cross bun,
unless we put the cross on top of it.
So we got 100 grams of flour.
And 50 grams of icing sugar.
50 to 60 mls of milk,
just until we get the right consistency.
So then just bring it all together.
It should just have a slight drop in consistency,
because we need to be able to pipe it.
So...into a piping bag.
We just cut off the end.
And simply, a line straight across each one.
And back straight across.
Or, if you're a big kid yourself, like I am...
Just because of the amount of sugar and richness in it,
they would tend to caramelise, so we back at a lower temperature.
We set the oven to 200 and the baking time is about 15 minutes.
15 to 16 minutes.