This is a sourdough version of the Hot Cross Bun recipe from
Bread Matters by Andrew Whitley, slightly adapted.
Makes 16 buns.
12-24 hours before you want to make the Hot Cross Bun dough, soak a
Fruit mixture and refresh your sourdough starter.
Production Sourdough (12-16 hours)
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| Plain or Wholemeal flour | 120g |
| Rye flour | 60g |
| Sourdough starter | 130g |
| Water (room temperature) | 110g |
| Total | 420g |
Refresh your old starter with flour and water as above. Don’t use only white wheat flour for this
part because it’s lacking in the bioactive elements (natural yeasts and
beneficial bacteria) that make a sourdough work well. Mix everything
together into a smooth dough, then cover (a lidded tub is good) and
leave in a cool place (not the fridge) to ferment.
[You can do a
faster four-hour refreshment if you have a reasonably
active starter. In this case, use 35°C water and leave the mix to
ferment in a warm place.]
Fruit Mix
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| Raisins | 100g |
| Sultanas | 100g |
| Stem or crystallised ginger, or candied peel, or flaked almonds | 70g |
| Fruit juice, water or spirit (e.g.rum) | 40g |
| Total | 310g |
Put everything into a bowl with a well-fitting lid or a strong
polythene bag, tie its neck and swirl it around a bit so that the liquid
comes into contact with all the dry ingredients. Do this a couple of
times over the soaking period if possible.
Once the production sourdough has doubled in size:
The Main Dough
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| Production sourdough (from above) | 400g |
| Plain flour | 100g |
| Wholemeal flour (or bread flour, or whatever flour you want) | 200g |
| Butter (or olive oil) | 50g |
| Brown sugar | 50g |
| Mixed spice | 10g |
| Sea salt (reduce to 2 g if using salted butter) | 5g |
| Egg (two medium eggs) | 100g |
| Water | 100g |
| Fruit Mix (from above) | 300g |
| Total | 1315g |
- Add the flour, spice, salt, egg, sugar, butter & water (but not
the fruit) to the production sourdough and mix until everything is
combined well. Knead (or mix in a machine) gently for as long as it
takes to develop a soft, fairly smooth dough (the smoothness will depend
on the proportion of wholemeal flour in the mix). Scotland The Bread
flour has a softer gluten that doesn’t require much kneading. Add a
little extra water if the dough becomes too stiff. It must be very soft
at this stage. The dough will be tacky on the surface because of the
sugar and egg in the mix, so use water on your hands and the worktop to
stop it sticking too much. If your dough feels too soft and sticky to
handle, it is probably about right!
- Put the kneaded dough in a bowl, cover well and leave it for 30
minutes or so. It won’t show many signs of rising in this time, but the
gluten will relax which makes folding the fruit in much easier.
- Stretch the dough gently out on a lightly floured surface into a
rectangle about 25 cm (10”) x 20 cm (8”). Spread the soaked fruit mix
over almost all the surface. Roll the dough up carefully, turn it
through 90 degrees and roll it gently up again, taking care not to force
the fruit through the surface (easier said than done).
- Divide into pieces weighing about 80 grams each and, using a little
flour on your hands and if necessary on the worktop, mould them into
fairly tight, round buns and place them in accurate rows on a baking
tray with a 2.5 cm (1”) gap between each bun. Remove any fruit exposed
on the top of the rolls and tuck it underneath so that it doesn’t burn
and become bitter.
- Prove until the buns are almost touching. This may take four or five
hours, depending on the vigour of your sourdough. Be patient and
remember that the natural sourdough yeasts are struggling with elements
(butter, egg, spice, even the extra sugar) in the mix that make life
difficult for them.
- Make the cross mix as it needs about the same amount of time to start bubbling:
The Crossing Mix
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| White flour (or sifted wholemeal) | 50g |
| Olive oil | 5g |
| Sourdough starter | 10g |
| Water (warm) | 50g |
| Total | 115g |
Mix all together and ferment for about four hours. The mixture should be bubbling a little and should be fairly runny.
Then when the buns have proved:
Place the fermenting crossing mix in a piping bag with a fairly fine
nozzle, or cut a very small triangle (the opening should be no more
than 3 mm across) from the corner of a stiff polythene bag and improvise
your own piping bag.
Then pipe the crosses onto the buns as neatly as you can. Put the buns in the oven immediately after piping the crosses.
Bake at about 180°C/350°F for 10-15 minutes depending on your oven.
Glaze generously as soon as the buns are out of the oven with a mixture
of two parts warmed honey to one part whipping cream, thoroughly
stirred.
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