This time it’s Stig’s fault. She emailed and asked if I had a Hot Cross Bun recipe and I thought Sue really likes them and I haven’t made any for years and I’ve been a bit of an old ratbag recently so I better make some myself.
Saturday morning and I haven’t refreshed my starter since Thursday so I decide to use half white and half rye starter – not at all sure of the logic for doing this but there you go. Did lots of folds during bulk fermentation to try to liven it up – it seemed to be happy to be working.
Just ate one – it was pretty good.
Bit late now but Easter’s only a year away so here’s an early egg:
Strong White: 57.3%
Wholemeal: 42.7%
Starter: 35.3%
Milk: 42.1%
Eggs: 21.6%
Honey: 11.4%
Butter: 19.0%
Spice: 3.4%
Salt: 1.7%
Currants: 21.8%
The spice mix is nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, cloves, ginger.
Four hours fermentation, scale at 80g, three hours prove.
Glaze with egg white before baking and brush with a lemon juice/honey mix at 2:1 straight from the oven.
The PArtisan Baker 
Hi Mick
Anna decided she wanted to make some HCBs and I managed to resist giving her advice on how to improve the recipe from Good Housekeeping! We now have a packet of dried yeast on the shelf. They came out well though and were complemented by home made butter and friend’s home made jam. I made what might have been the only egg shaped brioche.
Ben
I have made hot cross buns using the recipe from good housekeeping 1952 edition. They were enjoyed by family for years. Needless to say yeast no longer passes our threshold so appreciate the sourdough recipe.
Hi Ben
I think holding on the advice was a sensible move. Have you got a bike with a churn attachment now for the butter?
I have some kefir grains and can make “cultured butter” by blending some of the kefir into the cream and leaving it for 24 hours and it then only then takes 5-10 minutes of shaking the cream for it to separate. The kefir whey makes great bread as well and the brioche I made had the cultured butter and the buttermilk which gives it an extra lift. I’ve just about enough time for the full time job!