It’s Easter and there’s plenty of traditional food that could be made from all over the world. The hot cross bun is pretty much always a must at this time of year, especially for us British. They’re sweet and sticky… usually containing a variety of spices and dried fruit, but can vary with a lot of different flavours and ingredients. Who doesn’t love chocolate? We do! It’s everywhere at the moment… so why not make them with chocolate instead?
They are the
sort of food… a bit like a crumpet, fantastic toasted, slathering on the butter
so it oozes out when you bite into it. Not exactly for the health conscious! But
what’s wrong with a little treat now and then? Or you can just have them cold (the
fruit ones)… but in my opinion that is so wrong.
With a lot
of foods, we love to make things from scratch. Although it can be easier to buy
tortillas, pasta, breads, salsas, condiments and so on… where’s the fun in that?!
OK, we do agree even we are often pushed for time so getting them already made
is sometimes faster but we usually do it from scratch when we can. The main
reason behind this is that the flavour is usually unmatched. It’s pretty much
ALWAYS gonna taste better if you make it yourself and also you know EXACTLY
what has gone into it.
A while ago
we discovered a Belgian chocolate version which Sasha naturally preferred because
of the lack of dried fruit… although she has come around to them a bit more
over time. Since then we’ve vowed to recreate them. The chocolate version is
perfectly acceptable cold… in fact we didn’t try it toasted so can’t really
comment on it. We attempted to create our own... the first attempt being
utterly disastrous... a bit like rocks… they didn’t rise properly and weren’t fluffy
enough inside. The second attempt worked ok-ish... but we tweaked it a bit
further to make it perfect... third time is the charm.
These are based
on a recipe by Nigella Lawson, adjusted and played with to refine it to what we
think is just divine… and we will definitely be repeating this in future.
Chocolate Chunk Hot Cross Buns
Makes 16
Ingredients
For the dough
400 g bread
flour
150 ml milk
1 tbsp sugar
½ tsp salt
50 g butter
1 egg
1 clove
2 cardamom
pods
1 tsp
cinnamon
½ tsp ground
nutmeg
¼ tsp ground
ginger
Zest of 1
orange
7 g fast
action dried yeast
100 g dark
chocolate chunked up into chips (70% cocoa)
For the crosses
3 tbsp plain
flour
½ tbsp. caster
sugar
2 tbsp
orange juice
For the sugar glaze
1 tbsp
caster sugar
1 tbsp
orange juice
a beaten egg
for egg wash
Method
1. Heat a saucepan with the cloves, cardamom pods,
milk, and butter and leave to cool and infuse.
2. Add all the dry ingredients to a bowl and when the milk is just lukewarm remove the whole spices and beat in an egg. Mix with the dry ingredients. Combine and knead until soft and elastic - this is easiest in a food mixer.
3. Leave to prove for 1-2 hours until doubled in size.
4. Preheat oven to 190oC (fan, hotter for conventional) with a pan of water in the bottom, similar to the technique used for baking brioche buns for burgers. The pan of water is imperative to ensure a soft textured bun.
5. Knock back the dough. Divide into 16 equal pieces and roll into balls. Place on a non-stick tray - close to each other but not touching. Score a cross in the top of each one and leave to prove until doubled in size (~1hr).
6. Brush with egg wash and then decorate with the cross mixture; it is easiest to pipe this on. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden.
7. Heat together the sugar and juice for the glaze and brush the buns with it as soon as they come out of the oven. Allow to cool on a wire rack.
Adapted from Nigella Lawson - Feast
