Sourdough hot cross buns

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)

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

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

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 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.

Hot cross buns (the traditional family version from the grey folder)

Ingredients

1 lb strong white flour
1 level tsp salt
1 level tsp mixed spice
1/2 level tsp grated nutmeg
2 oz caster sugar
1 oz fresh yeast (or 1 level tbsp dried yeast)
1 warm egg (beaten) made up to half a pint with warm milk and water, and 1 tsp caster sugar (make sure it's all very nice and warm!)
2 oz melted butter
4 oz currants
1-2 oz chopped mixed peel

For the crosses:

1 oz self raising flour
1 dessert spoon of oil
1 dessert spoon of milk
1 dessertspoon of water

For the glaze:

1 tbsp water
1 tbsp milk
1 tbsp caster sugar

Method

If possible, work in a warm room!

1. Warm the bowl to quite hot
2. Sift the flour, salt, spices and sugar into the warm bowl
3. Add the warm milk and water to the egg and add the yeast (and sugar if using dried yeast).
4. Make a dip in the middle of the dry ingredients and stir in the melted butter and the yeasty liquid.
5. Mix to a soft dough.
6. Turn out onto an unfloured surface, and knead for 5-10 minutes until smooth.
7. Press out the dough with knuckles and spread the currants and mixed peel over the surface.
8. Gather it up and knead it again to distribute the fruit.
9. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a smooth ball. Put it in the warm bowl to rise, covered with a plastic bag.
10. When it has doubled in size turn it out again, flatten it, knead it again, and divide into 16 pieces by rolling the side of your hand across the middle of each piece to force the dough apart at the centre. (The original recipe says make 12, but when it works well this quantity makes 16 large buns).
11. Place the buns well apart on a greased tray. Put them in a warm place to rise (covered with a bag or cloth).
12. Heat the oven to 425º F, Gas mark 7
13. When the buns are risen and all joined up at the edges, apply the crosses: make up the paste for the crosses in a small bowl, and use a piping bag or cone of greaseproof paper to squeeze a tube of paste across each row of buns, and then again at right angles across the vertical and horizontal axes. (If your piping hole is too large and you have 16 large buns, you may need to make more paste!)
14. Bake them in the hot oven for 15-20 minutes (until they sound good and hollow on the bottom).
15. While they are baking make the glaze: heat the ingredients in a small pan on the stove, slowly at first then boil, stirring with a wooden spoon. Draw it off the heat.
16. When the buns are done, glaze them using a pastry brush while they are still hot.
17. Allow to cool a bit, or just eat them immediately.... 
18. To serve, split the bun horizontally and butter it liberally. Split buns can be toasted in the toaster, or whole buns can be reheated in the oven.

Wheat-free hot cross buns

(Small quantity, to produce circa 4 buns).

Mix 2 tsp of dried yeast with 1/8 pint of warm water and a tsp of sugar. Set aside in a warm place until it is well frothy.

For the buns:
8oz flour composed of some combination of rye, barley and cornflour. I used 3 oz rye, 3 oz barley, 2 oz cornflour.
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp mixed spice (or cinnamon, cloves, ginger)
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
1 oz melted butter
2 oz currants
1 oz mixed peel
1 oz white sugar

warm milk/water

Put the dry ingredients in a large warm bowl. Break the egg into it and stir.
Add the melted butter and stir.
Make up the yeast liquid to just under 1/4 pint, preferably with warm milk if available, or warm water.
Add the yeast liquid to the mixture.
Add the currants.
Mix well. It will have the consistency of a cake mixture: not kneadable but scoopable.

Put the bowl in a plastic bag and leave it in a warm place for about an hour.

Not sure how to do crosses without wheat flour, but you could try a paste of barley flour and water from a piping bag.

When the mixture had had time to prove, grease four yorkshire pudding tins and scoop a large spoonful of the spongy mixture into each of them. Bake for 10-15 minutes at 425ºF or gas mark 7.

Glaze as for normal hot cross bun recipe.

Hot cross buns

This is not the traditional Osborne recipe, but I've just checked it works. Makes 12 buns:

For the buns:
450g / 1lb strong plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
50g / 2oz butter
25g / 1oz fresh yeast (or you may substitute dried yeast)
50g / 2oz caster sugar
100g / 4oz currants
50g / 2oz chopped mixed peel
150ml / 1/4 pint warm milk
4 tablespoons warm water
1 egg, beaten

For the crosses:
± 2oz plain flour
± 3 tablespoons cold water

For the glaze:
50g/ 2oz granulated sugar
3 tablespoons milk

Sift flour, salt and spices into a bowl. Rub in the butter. Put the yeast in a cup with 1 tbsp sugar and stir until it goes liquid. Meanwhile stir the remaining sugar into the mixture and also the currants and peel. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the liquidy yeast into it, together with the milk, water and egg. Mix to form a soft dough. Turn out onto a floured board and knead until elastic. Put the dough back in the bowl, cover with cling film or a plastic bag, and leave to rise in a warm place [airing cupboard, or spot near the boiler do nicely] for about 1 to 1.5 hours, long enough for it to double in size.

Then knock back the dough and divide it into 12 balls. Place balls well apart on a greased baking tray. Again cover and leave in a warm place, for about 30 minutes. Next, make the paste for the crosses using flour and water, divide this into 24 tiny balls, roll the balls into "worms" in your fingers and lay the worms over the buns in the form of crosses, sticking the ends down firmly to the side of the buns. Bake buns in a hot oven [220C, or 200C in a fan oven / gas 7] for 20 - 25 minutes. While they're baking make the glaze by bringing the sugar and milk to the boil, stirring. When the buns come out of the oven, brush the glaze over them. [This is difficult without a pastry brush, so locate one if possible]. Cool on a rack.