I can’t help it. At Christmas, if everyone else is baking Panettone, I’m baking Brioche de Noel. If they’re baking Stollen, I’m baking Christopsomo. I’m just perverse like that. So when it comes to Easter, it’s Jamaican Easter Buns, not Hot Cross Buns.
Jamaican Easter Buns (full bread formula here) are rather more robust than your average Hot Cross Bun. They contain Guinness, Milk, Molasses (or in this case,, Treacle), Sugar, Grated Apple, Butter, Raisins + 4 spices: Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Allspice, Ginger. With that lot aboard, one 80g bun will do me for breakfast (well, maybe one-and-a-half).
It’s also quite a load for your Starter to lift and this year’s first batch came out a little sad down to carelessness on my part.
I mainly make buns with left-over pizza dough that’s been in the fridge for a couple of days. The only proving time they get is the time it takes for the oven to reach 300C. They are shaped and flattened, and then dimpled before going in the oven. If you don’t do this they balloon up when they hit the heat.
After about four hours fermentation and the same time proving, the first batch got the same treatment. In particular they did not take to the pre-bake flattening.
Is that a surly looking bun or is that a surly looking bun? Not only has it refused to rise, there’s a dark, fudgy layer in the middle. Tastes really good, doesn’t take too long for your jaw to recover, but not quite up to Easter treats standard.
So, second time around I treated them more gently, shaped them properly, paid more attention to the proving and nursed them through the baking process.
With these ingredients you’re never going to get a light, open crumb – that’s not the point. They should be weightier and more substantial than supermarket breads have led people to expect.
Great combination of flavours, not too sweet, and the spice blend manages to be positive but gentle at the same time.
The PArtisan Baker 