Hot Cross Buns II

Dan Lepard’s recipe. The dough was really easy to work with (no need to knead, just fold 12-14 times after overnight fermentation, as most gluten is developed after fermenting overnight). Believe many people can make it. Result is a very soft hot cross bun. Delicius & worthwhile to try! However I would like it spicier, will add more spices next time (Hamelman’s that I made last year was spicier, but this one is softer). Happy Spring!

Very wet mixed dough. But it’ll be fine after overnight. The wet dough is to facilitate gluten development.

Hot Cross Buns

In fact I made these buns in Easter, but as they were soooooo tasty, and I am missing spiced bread now, I have decided to write a blog about them today to try to make myself feel better (or I will feel worse?).

They are from Jeffrey Hamelman’s “Bread” recipe. It uses an interesting sponge, which flour to milk is 1:5, plus some yeast and sugar, waited until the size is 3-4 times bigger. When fermented, it looked funny, somewhat like expired milk.

The texture of the bread was fluffy when I ate it warm too. This was the first time I tasted a “fluffy bread”. Funny. I like the texture. It was extremely soft at the same time, had lots of dried fruits, very strong in allspice favour and was deliciously sweet. All of the strong but delicious tastes and smell made me miss the bread always…

(P.S. the bread would go stale on the other day, so I’ll recommend to eat it warm or re-heated… Definitely re-heating on the next day will not affect my love to it)

Fermented flour, milk, yeast & bit of sugar:

Lots of dried fruits and peels:

Recipe: “Bread” by Jeffrey Hamelman (you can find the recipe from the internet easily)