Baking in the Time of Corona Virus........Hot Cross Buns! Hot Cross Buns!

'Hot Cross Buns' is an English language nursery rhyme, Easter song and street cry referring to the spiced English bun associated with Good Friday. The most common modern version is:

Hot cross buns!
Hot cross buns!
One ha' penny, two ha' penny,
Hot cross buns!
If you have no daughters,
Give them to your sons
One ha' penny,
Two ha' penny,
Hot Cross Buns!

There is not a nursery rhyme that I don't know. As a child I must have thought that learning rhymes was my responsibility, or perhaps my job. In retrospect, this particular rhyme doesn't appear to make a lot of sense.

This was the batch that was almost tossed.

I happen to love hot cross buns the way I happen to love fruit cake. Unfortunately, during the current corona virus crisis, the local epicentre of bun-baking is closed. Therefore, I have been forced to resort to bun-baking myself using the original recipe from Pan Chancho, the aforementioned mecca of bun bakery.

Pan Chancho was established by Zal Yanovsky and his wife Rose, as a bakeshop to supply their Kingston restaurant Chez Piggy. As some senior citizens may remember, Zal was a member of the American band called the Lovin' Spoonful. 'Do You Believe in Magic?' If so, you'll be fine attempting this recipe.

By the way, given I've been baking in the time of corona virus, I was short of several ingredients. I lacked currants the first time I attempted these buns, and lacked both currants and candied peel during the second attempt. As my sister pointed out, grocery store buns only ever contain raisins, so 2 cups of raisins it was. It is possible to overdo the raisins. 

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 cups of warm water
• 1/2 cup of butter, softened
• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
• 6 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup of milk powder
• 2 eggs slightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon of the spice mix
• 1 tablespoon of sea salt
• 1 and 1/2 cups of dried currants
• 1 cup chopped candied peel, mixed
• 1 and 1/2 cups of sultana raisins
• 1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons of milk (the egg 'wash')

Spice Mix

• 4 teaspoons ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoons allspice
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Icing

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 and 1/2 cups of icing sugar
• zest of 1 lemon

Methods:

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. After about 10 minutes, stir in the butter, 2 lightly beaten eggs and milk powder. Add the flour, sugar, spice mixture, salt, currants, raisins and citrus peel and mix well. Turn the dough on to a floured board and knead until "silky". 

Here's where things get tricky. What exactly does silky dough look like? I'll never know. All I can tell you is that it is much easier to make these buns if you happen to have a Kitchen Aid standing mix-master. During my first bun-making attempt, having been overly influenced by the stringent rules of Paul Hollywood on the Great British Baking Show, I kneaded the dough by hand. It came very close to being thrown in the garbage. I used the Kitchen Aid mixer for the second attempt, but again the dough did not approach "silky". Maybe they meant to say "sticky".

Leave to rise (in a greased bowl, and covered in plastic wrap) in a warm place for 2-3 hours until the dough has doubled in size. Punch down the dough and shape into 18 buns. Place on a couple of greased baking sheets and allow the dough to rise again until not quite doubled in size. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Slash the tops of the buns with a razor blade (quite dramatic, I think). Just before putting the buns in the oven, brush the tops with the egg-milk wash. Bake for 20 minutes. To make the icing, warm the lemon juice in a small sauce pan, the stir in the sugar and add the lemon zest. Ice the slightly cooled buns with a cross of icing.

This is the brute of a machine they call a Kitchen Aid mix-master. I bought it with Air Mile points when they were threatening people to use (or lose) their points. Little did I know that I was not getting the delicate little machine that Martha Stewart so deftly uses, but a monster spring-loaded thing reminiscent of farm equipment.