Hot Cross Buns (a little late, I know)

Unfortunately, this photo is significantly less lovely than my photo of the beef and broccoli.  I assure you, however that these hot cross buns are no less delicious.  They are, perhaps, a little out of season, but they are too yummy to relegate to Lent.  I think they should enjoy a prominent place in breakfast menus year round.

Before we get to the recipe, I'm going to emphasize that I use rapid rise yeast in all yeast bread that I bake.  This means that the temperatures of liquids can be a bit higher than usual, and that there's no tempering process, most of the ingredients are just mixed right away.

I never used to like hot cross buns, when Matt would buy them at the grocery store.  Then, the spring before we got married, we were in Maine for wedding planning purposes shortly before Easter.  We stopped at Matt's favorite bakery in Brunswick (Wild Oats), where they had the most phenomenal hot cross buns.  They were lemon-ey and cardomom-ey and completely delicious.  I then set out on a crusade to learn to make them that way myself.  Here's the recipe I came up with (based loosely on the recipe in the Joy of Cooking). 

Hot Cross Buns

Ingredients:

3 1/2-4 c. flour

1 packet of yeast

3 Tbsp. sugar

1 c. + 3 Tbsp. milk (125-135 degrees)

5 Tbsp. melted butter

1 egg

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. cardamom

1 tsp. salt

1/2 c. currants

zest of one lemon

squeeze of lemon juice

For glaze and crosses:

juice of one lemon

powdered sugar

Directions:

Boil some water.  Put the currants in a small bowl and pour the boiling water over them.  Cover and set aside for around thirty minutes.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (with the bread hook attached), combine 2 cups of flour, yeast, spices, lemon zest, sugar, egg, melted butter and milk.  Mix with bread hook.  I recommend using bread flour for these two cups.

Add more flour (I usually add all-purpose here, and this time I used 1/2 c. of white whole wheat, with absolutely no ill effects).  When you've added the better part of the remaining 1.5-2 cups, drain and add the currents.  I recommend adding them in small groups and then adding more flour, since the addition of the currents will make the dough wetter. I usually add a quick squeeze of lemon juice (not too much--you don't want to mess up the chemistry). In the end,  the dough should be well worked, elastic and not too sticky (and deliciously currant-studded).

Place the dough in an oiled bowl and leave in a warm place to rise.  When the dough has doubled, roll it into balls (depending on my mood I make between 13 and 18 rolls) and place them on a cookie sheet (leave some space since they're going to rise again, but I think it's nice if they touch after rising).  Cover with oiled plastic-wrap.  Leave to rise until double again.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Brush the rolls lightly with a beaten egg.  Place them in the oven.  Let bake for around 15 minutes.  The rolls should sound hollow if you knock on them.  While the rolls bake, juice the lemon.  Strain the juice into a bowl and mix with powdered sugar to create a glaze.  Brush the glaze onto the warm rolls after removing them from the oven.  Cover all available surfaces.  Mix in more powdered sugar until you form a stiff paste.  Once the rolls have cooled, use this paste (and I usually use a fork as my drawing implement), to draw crosses on the rolls.  Enjoy.