Spicy Fruity Breadiness

I'm a bit erratic with recipes.

There are some dishes which I use the same recipe year in, year out like my coveted lemon meringue recipe, the family belgian biscuits, Nigella's snickerdoodles etc. Others - I try a variety of different recipes, never really getting emotionally attached to them. Easter Buns (Hot Cross Buns) fall into the latter category. 

The key Easter traditions in my family as I was growing up were that we had Hot Cross Buns on Good Friday and then a visit from the Easter Bunny on Easter Sunday. I don't know whether this was really the case or not, but in my memory those were the only days that we consumed those particular food items - none of this having a bit of munch from January onward. Even as a teenager I was very strict with this and refused to consume Easter Eggs before Easter Sunday! But I digress....

Hot Cross Buns on Good Friday, especially making them myself, is a tradition that I still love. Admittedly, I do gobble up some store bought ones in the lead-up as I really do like the spicy fruity breadiness of them. However, whenever possible I make them myself on Good Friday. 

Some years it is with the help of an electric bread maker, some years it is with a recipe that only has one rising. This year is a repeat performance of last year's experiment with a multipurpose bread recipe that I received from a friend's mother years ago. I loved them - I hope you do to! 

Happy Easter to you all!

Traditional Hot Cross Buns
(Based on Lynn Hutchison's Chatham Island Bread)

1/4 C Sugar
2 t Salt
20g Butter – melted
500ml Warm Water
1/4 C Milk Powder
1 T Cinnamon
1 T Mixed Spice
14g Dried Yeast
1 egg – lightly beaten
1/4 C Currants
1/4 C Candied Peel (can be ommitted)
1/2 C Sultanas
750g Flour
8g Bread Improver

Mix together Sugar, Salt, Butter, Water, Milk Powder, Spices and Yeast. Leave in a warm place for 10-20 mins (until frothy). Mix in the egg, the fruit and finally the remaining ingredients, turning onto the bench and kneading until the dough is elastic (about 10 -15 mins - when you press down with your fingers, the dough should bounce back). Pop into a bowl that is at least twice the depth of the dough's volume. Leave somewhere warm to rise until doubled. Punch down and shape into buns and place into a well greased baking pan, just touching each other. Leave to rise again. Once doubled, you can pipe crosses with a paste made of flour and water, or you can cut crosses into the top with the tip ofa sharp knife. Preheat oven to 210C. Bake until well browned and the buns sound hollow when tapped (sorry - I never recorded a time as I always do it by feel). Turn the oven off and glaze buns with sugar syrup (1 part sugar dissolved in 1 part water) and return to the oven for 5-10 minutes.

Chocolate Hot Cross Buns
3/8 C Sugar
2 t Salt
20g Butter - melted
500ml Warm Water
1/4 C Milk Powder
2 t (rounded) Cinnamon
1/2 t Ground Nutmeg
14g Dried Yeast
1 egg – lightly beaten
750g Flour
1/4 C Cocoa - sifted
8g Bread Improver
1 C Chocolate Chips (whichever strength that suits you)

Proceed as per Traditional Hot Cross Buns, but don't add the chocolate chips until after the first proving as they tend to melt.

Recipes of the Mystical Kind

I'm not entirely certain of what age I started baking.

I know it started with simple jobs like pressing down biscuits (cookies) with a floured fork or a recycled thread spool to give them an interesting pattern, but at some point I was allowed to do my own thing, unassisted. 

I suspect learning to bake well was something akin to osmosis. All the women around me baked very well and were always doing it. And they always encouraged “helpers”. Maybe my tendency of being somewhat literal helped as well. I wasn't inclined to do things that weren't stated in recipes. As an example, when I was 12 or 13 I was babysitting some children and the mother allowed me to bake some biscuits in her absence (clearly this wasn't in the Noughties). When she got home I told her that I had put the leftover dough in the freezer. When asked why there was leftover dough, I responded very matter-of-factly that the recipe had stated that it made 24 biscuits and consequently there were leftovers. I guess I must have made them quite tiny as well! 

 

As time progressed, I started collecting recipes. The year I turned 13, my Aunt gave me a blank recipe book so that I could do this. However, the little red book wasn't always on hand when I was procuring recipes. Sometimes I would take them down over the phone, other times I would be visiting somewhere and would end up with a scrap of paper. Because baking (and cooking in general) was somewhat formulaic to me, I ended up just jotting down ingredients and important details such as temperatures. I assumed that that the “method” would be clear to me just by looking at the ingredients. 

Just recently one of these oddly transcribed recipes has shown up. Judging by the memo cube paper that it is written on and the look of my handwriting, this one goes back a good 20 years – maybe even further. What is interesting is that I didn't even bother saying what the recipe was for. 

In the interests of passing down some useful recipes to my children, I figure it is probably a good thing to flesh these “skeleton” recipes out. This particular recipe seemed like a good place to start. 

• So – what is the recipe for? I figure it is a chocolate cake. 
• Why does it have two measures of milk? I have absolutely no idea, but I suspect one is for dissolving the baking soda in. 
• Are the ingredients listed in order of use? Don't know – we'll soon find out!

Having decided this is a cake recipe, I then needed to decided whether I would use the creaming method or the sponge cake method where you whisk the eggs and sugar together (can you tell I don't know the proper name for that one). I chose the latter and knew as soon as I added the sugar to the eggs that this was the wrong decision. So if I make it again, here is the recipe that I will use:

Light Chocolate Cake 
2 cups Sugar 
225g Butter (softened) 
3 Eggs 
3/4 cup Milk 
2 cups Flour 
2 tablespoons Cocoa 
2 teaspoons Baking Powder 
1/2 cup Milk 
1 teaspoon Baking Soda 

Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Sift flour, cocoa and baking powder together and add alternately with the milk. Dissolve the baking soda in the second measure of milk and gently stir into the batter. Bake in a prepared pan (probably 20cm/8” - I don't know for sure as I didn't do my test bake in cake pan) 
Bake at 175ºC / 350ºF for 30 minutes or until done. 

If you do decide to mix it a different way (l actually melted the butter in my previous attempt), don't worry – the results are still quite acceptable.