Easter treats
Pull-apart hot cross buns
This is another slow-rise, low-yeast bread in a similar style to the no-knead bread I shared a few weeks ago.
I enjoy working with bread dough in this way as it is not rushed, with the different stages short in duration.
The timing also means if you make the dough at Saturday dinner-time, you will have warm Easter buns for Sunday brunch.
A slow rise means less kneading is required which, in my opinion, is a good thing.
I am quite a lazy baker, when it comes to drawnout steps such as kneading, so I’m always looking for ways to minimise my hands-on time.
Hot cross bun pull-apart bread
Preparation time: 30 minutes plus over night and bench-rising time, about 12 hours Cooking time: 25 minutes
Serves 8
■ 350ml milk (any milk can be used – I used oat milk)
■ 30g butter
■ Zest of 1 lemon, thinly peeled and finely chopped
■ 75g raisins
■ 50g currants
■ 500g white flour (standard or high-grade can be used)
■ 2 teaspoons sugar
■ 1 teaspoon cinnamon
■ 1 teaspoon mixed spice
■ 1⁄2 teaspoon ground ginger
■ 1⁄4 teaspoon ground cloves
■ 1 teaspoon salt
■ 1 teaspoon active dried yeast
Cross paste
■ 21⁄2 tablespoons water
■ 3 tablespoons flour
Apricot glaze
■ 1 tablespoon apricot jam or other light coloured jam
■ 1 tablespoon boiling water
Around 6-7pm the evening before baking the bread, make the dough.
Combine the milk and butter in a saucepan and heat just until the butter melts.
Remove from the heat and add the lemon zest, raisins and currants. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes and to plump up the dried fruit.
Combine the flour, sugar, spices, salt, and yeast in a large mixing bowl. Pour over the warm milk mixture and use a tablespoon to mix it all together into a shaggy dough.
Cover with a plate and leave to hydrate for
30 minutes.
After this time, use your hands to knead the dough directly in the bowl for two minutes until smooth, then form into a ball and cover with a plate.
Leave to rise in a warm place for 3-4 hours, then put the bowl into the fridge overnight.
The next day, around 7am-8am, remove the dough from the fridge, tip on to the bench, and knead lightly for
20 seconds.
Use a dough scraper or butter knife to divide into four even pieces, then cut each piece into four again.
You will now have 16 pieces in total.
Roll each into a ball by cupping your hand over the dough and moving in a circular motion.
Grease a 24cm-wide round oven proof dish (I used a cast-iron pan), or a similar sized cake tin. Snugly arrange the dough balls into the dish, starting with one in the middle, five placed around this and then 10 around the outside. See the photo for placement as this will be important when it comes to piping on the crosses.
Cover the pan/tin with a plastic bag so the dough doesn’t dry out, and leave to rise for about two hours until risen by about a third.
Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius, or 200C fan bake.
Prepare the cross paste by combining the flour and water in a bowl, then spoon this into a ziplock bag. Use scissors to snip off a corner, about 3mm wide. Squeeze the flour mix on to the risen dough to make crosses. Place in the oven and bake for 25 minutes until golden. Remove the bread from the oven.
Make the glaze by combining the apricot jam and boiling water in a small bowl. Use a pastry brush to evenly brush over the hot bread. Cool a little in the pan/ tin, then move the bread to a cooling rack.
Serve warm with butter and jam.