My girlfriend sent me a picture of these delicious looking buns on Easter Friday so I just had to try them out myself. They are adapted from a Nadia Lim recipe. First version was a little under-spiced so I made some adjustments and the second batch was much improved. I had to substitute a few things but still a lovely result (especially when you forget to put hot crossed buns in the online shopping order!)
Ingredients
Dough
500 gm flour
1 tsp active dry yeast
50 gm brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
1/2 nutmeg finely grated (I used 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg)
350ml milk, gently heated to lukewarm (I used powdered milk)
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
50 gm currants (I used raisins)
30 gm mixed peel (I made do with some mandarin peel)
Flour Paste
40gm flour
water to mix
Glaze
1/2 C caster sugar
50ml boiling water
Method
- Start by making the dough, combine the flour, yeast, sugar and spices and a tsp of salt in a large bowl. Add lukewarm milk and vegetable oil and mix to a smooth dough. Mix in the currants and peel and transfer to a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with a damp tea towel and leave to prove until doubled in size (1-1/2 hrs).
- Line a square 22 cm cake tin with baking paper. Knock back the dough and with lightly floured hands divide into 9 even pieces. Roll into smooth balls and arrange in the cake tin. Leave to prove until doubled in size (about half an hour).
- Preheat the oven 190C
- For the flour paste, mix the flour and water to a thick paste that will hold its shape when piped (my first version was too runny and I had very thick crosses!). Put in a plastic bag and snip the corner to serve as a piping bag to pipe the crosses.
- Bake until golden - approx. 20-22mins.
- Remove from oven and glaze immediately . Wonderful served warm with butter.
