the yeast working for my hot cross bunnnnnnies

I love making bread and other yeasty goods. Not much satisfies me more than the mixing, kneading, rising, baking, smell of bread permeating every nook of the house and finally the finished product, hot from the oven with cold butter melting into the fluffy mess. These little darlings were delicious. They did stale a bit by the next day, but not to worry! A zap in the oven and more butter and they were divine again.

These fluffs had dried and cooked apple in them. None of that nasty store-bought mixed peel either - I made my own. No bitter disgusting stuff here.

Recipe adapted from April 2010 Gourmet Traveller magazine.

Candied Orange Peel

In a saucepan combine 1 orange, in 5mm slices, 2 cups of water and 1 cup of sugar. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes or until the orange is translucent. Cool the orange slices in their syrup and store in the refrigerator. To use, cut the bitter white pith away from the outer skin. Cut the skin into small dice.

Candied Lemon with Apples

In a small saucepan combine 1/2 lemon, in 5mm slices, juice of 1/2 a lemon, 2 cups of water, 1 cup of sugar, 2 granny smith apples, unpeeled, cored and diced and 1 cinammon stick. Bring to the boil and then cook for 20 minutes or until the lemon is translucent. Strain the fruit and reserve the fruit separate to the syrup. Return the syrup to the pan and cook until thick and syrupy (this will end up being your glaze for the buns). Remove the lemon from the mix and dice into small pieces. Mix back together with apple.

Buns

5 cups plain flour

150g sultanas

50g dried apple, diced

Diced skin from 3 slices of candied orange

Reserved cooked lemon and apple

14g dried yeast (2 sachets)

3 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice

Zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon

1 1/2 cups milk

100g butter

1 egg

In a small saucepan, gently heat the milk and butter until the butter melts. Only heat it to body temperature. When the butter has melted, whisk in the egg.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sultanas, dried and cooked apple, candied peels, yeast, cinnamon, allspice and zests. Make a well in the centre and add the milk/butter/egg mixture. Mix well.

Turn onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic (I wonder now whether my dough hook in my electric mixer would have done the trick). Place into a buttered bowl, cover with glad wrap and rise in a warm place for 30-4o mins or until doubled in size.

Knock back the dough. Divide into 20 even (or not so even if you are me) pieces. Knead each piece into a smooth ball. Arrange the dough in a pan that will fit them neatly. They need at least 1cm rising room between each ball. Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size (30-40 minutes).

Preheat the oven to 220C. Make a smooth paste from some plain flour and water. Spoon into a piping bag (or a plastic bag with the corner snipped off). Pipe a cross onto each bun. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 200C and bake until golden and hollow - another 8-10 minutes. Do not overbake them like I did!

Brush the hot buns thickly with the reserved fruit glaze from making the apples and lemon.

Eat warm with plenty of butter.

enjoy