The Time I Made Hot Cross Buns (AM)

I love hot cross buns. Who wouldn't want their buns to be hot, and with a cross on them?
Truly, only a mad person.
Every year, I think about baking my own fresh hot cross buns. Instead, all I do is eat a whole bunch that I buy from the shop. Well god damn it, this year I'm making hot cross buns.
In fact, I made them last night! Here is what happened. 

I looked at a few different recipes but decided on this one, because I love Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and because it seemed straight forward, and because I love Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall. 

Hugh with chicken. One of dozens of photos of Hugh with a chicken on the internet.

I went to Mirimar Nut Shop and bought figs, apricots and sultanas to facilitate the tutti fruttiness of the buns.  What, that's what they're called in the recipe!
I chopped up the fruit, measured out some of the other ingredients and got to work. 

Of course, all dough based baking is really just a sequence of mixing, kneading and waiting for the thing the rise. This one was no different. I mixed, I kneaded, I waited for the thing to rise. The only slightly unusual thing was that the first rise takes place with only half the flour and none of the fruit.
#crazy!
It looked like this. 

So pasty. This is where the phrase 'doughboy' comes from. That is not a a real fact, but it seems possible. Aesthetically, things improved considerably once the other ingredients were added, and the kneading began.

Hugh recommends kneading in the bowl, but I found it annoying and restrictive. I knead to be free.

Ha!


Once the dough was nice and smooth, it went back in the bowl for another prove. 

Before

After

Then it was the moment I had been waiting for: bun formation. Hugh recommends that you divide the dough in half. Then divide each half in half again. Then again, then again, like cell division.  Sure Hugh, I can do that. 

Sixteen candles. I mean, buns. Sixteen buns.

Finally, the crosses. This part was weird. You make a very think paste, then roll it out with a rolling pin, then cut them in to long strips and lay them over the buns. Then one final rise, then brush with egg glaze, then in the oven!

About to go in the oven!

In the oven

Out of the oven!

About to go in my mouth!

 
Hooray! What a piece of cake, right? And take my word for it people, these little babies are the most delicious thing since a piece of cake.  
 
Well, at least I thought so. 
If only I could get a second, objective opinion!

Whatever you do, readers, stay tuned to Miss Soft Crab.