Hot Cross Buns

I don't know about elsewhere in the world, but if you go into any shops in the UK, it's Christmas. It's the start of October - we haven't yet had Halloween - but Christmas stuff is EVERYWHERE.

So I'm skipping past that and now it's Easter and I made you Hot Cross Buns. Sorry I'm not sorry.

Ingredients:

For the buns:
- 500g strong white bread flour (and some for dusting)
- 10g salt
- 75g caster sugar
- 10g instant yeast
- 40g butter, softened
- 2 medium eggs, beaten
- 120ml warm milk (semi-skimmed or full fat)
- 120ml cool water
- 150g sultanas
- 80g chopped mixed peel
- Finely grated zest of 2 oranges
- 1 eating apple, peeled, cored and diced
- 1tsp ground cinnamon

For the crosses:
- 75g plain flour
- 75ml water

For the glaze:
- 75g lemon and lime marmalade (normal marmalade would be great too, as would apricot jam...just use what you have to hand.


- Tip the flour into the bowl; add the yeast to one side and the salt and sugar to the other.

- Add the butter, eggs, warm milk and half of the water and start to mix together with your fingers.

 - Continue to add the water until mixture forms a rough dough and can be used to clean flour from the edges of the bowl. You might now have to add all of the flour, go slowly.
- Once the dough comes together, tip it onto a lightly floured surface and knead it for 5-10 minutes. The dough will change from a rough texture to a smooth, soft one.
- When your dough feels smooth and silky, put it back into the bowl and cover with cling film.

- Leave the dough to rise in as warm as place as you can find until it has doubled in size. An hour should be enough but you can leave it for longer if you like.

- Zest your oranges, peel and chop your apple. Add to a bowl with weighed-out sultanas, mixed peel and cinnamon.

- Tip the risen dough onto a lightly floured surface and flatten it as much as possible.

- Scatter the zest, apple, sultanas, mixed peel and cinnamon over the dough.

- Knead them into the dough until evenly incorporated. Again, go slowly because this can be quite messy.

- Place back into the bowl and cover with clingfilm. Again, leave it to rise for another hour. Mine went slightly nuts...

- After an hour, fold the dough inwards repeatedly until all the air is knocked out. Divide into 12 pieces and roll them into balls. 

- Place them fairly close together across 2 baking trays lined with baking parchment.

- Put each tray into a clean plastic bag and leave to rest in a warm place for another hour. After half an hour, preheat the oven to 220C.

- For the crosses, mix the plain flour and water into a paste and use it to pipe crosses onto each bun.

- Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

- Gently warm the jam or marmalade with a splash of water. Sieve it and brush it on to the buns to glaze.

- Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Hot cross buns just want to be loved. Their popularity shoots through the roof at Easter but for the rest of the year? Well, you have to search in only the largest supermarkets to find them. They're neglected. Help them. Make them yourself and see that a good hot cross bun, fresh from the oven, is perfect with a cup of tea in this horrible October weather. A hot cross bun is for life, not just for Easter.