Home made Hot cross buns

Piped and ready for the oven

Love seeing the mixture rise to double its original size

Enjoying a bun on Easter Sunday

For years I have said I would make some hot cross buns instead of just buying them and this year i took the plunge.
I had some problems with the piping,i decided to bring out a piping kit I had bought but never used and the instructions on how to assemble it were terrible so i decided to just put the paste in a glad bag and snipped off a corner,there was much more pressure than the bag could handle and it broke so half of them look messy,then i had some extra buns without crosses and figured out how to use the piping accessories just by looking at the picture(should have done that first) and finished off the last row with some much more decent looking crosses.

Recipe from the Sydney Morning Herald

1/3 cup caster sugar
2 x 7g sachets dry yeast
11/2 cups warm milk
600g plain flour
Pinch of salt
11/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice
60g butter, chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
2/3 cup currants
Paste for crosses
1/2 cup plain flour
4 tbsp water
2 tsp caster sugar
Glaze
1 tbsp very hot water
1 tsp gelatine powder
1 tbsp caster sugar

Combine caster sugar, yeast and milk in a bowl, stir until smooth, cover and rest in a warm place for 10minutes or until frothy.

Sift flour, salt, cinnamon and mixed spice into a large bowl. Use your fingertips to rub butter into flour mixture. Stir in yeast mixture, egg and currants until well combined. Cover and rest in a warm place for 45minutes or until mixture has doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 220 degrees.

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic (about five minutes). Divide dough into 16 even pieces and roll into balls. Place balls into a lightly greased square cake pan lined with baking paper. Rest covered for 10-15 minutes or until balls have risen to the top of the pan.

Combine paste ingredients in a small bowl and, using a piping bag fitted with a small plain nozzle or a plastic bag with a snip off one corner, pipe crosses over buns.

Bake for about 20minutes or until well browned and cooked. Combine glaze ingredients in a small bowl and stir until sugar is dissolved. Brush buns with warm glaze and cool on a cake rack.

(Hot cross buns are traditionally eaten on Good Friday, so you could begin the dough the day before. Let it rise, punch down and place in a large, lightly oiled bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight. The next day, punch down once, knead and form into buns and allow them to rise before baking.)

Makes 16.

Can be stored in an airtight container for two days.