An Easter Tradition

As long as I can remember, my mom made hot cross buns at Easter. When I was in college and even as an adult, she would ship a small batch of them to me every year. So the Easter after she passed, it just felt wrong not to make them myself.

Now, I must confess, mom's hot cross buns were not the most delicious things you've ever eaten. In fact, several members of our family weren't all that crazy about them. Traditionally hot cross buns are made with candied fruit. Yep. Think fruit cake. Eck. And they could be kind of dense. But there's something about tradition and they just always felt like home and Easter to me.

After making this same dense, candied fruit bun on my own, I decided to do a little research and try to find a better recipe. I don't think mom would be offended. After all, this was the woman who must have tried 100 different blueberry muffin recipes over the years to find just the right one. And she did find just the right one. Maybe I'll share that recipe later.

I tried this hot cross bun recipe two years ago, have made a few of my own minor edits and think we have a winner.

First, you need a lot of time. It's not super complicated, but the buns have to rise - twice - totaling over 2 hours.

Second, you must have an electric mixer with a dough hook. I'm sure it can be done, but I just can't imagine accomplishing this recipe without a mixer.

Third, set aside 2 eggs and 1/4 cup butter (4T) to let them come to room temperature.

Heat 3/4 cup milk until warm (not scalding) - about 25-30 seconds in my microwave. Add one package of dry yeast, 1/2 teaspoon sugar and stir. Set aside until the yeast gets all comfy and foamy like this - roughly 5-10 minutes.

This is probably the most important step in the whole recipe. If your yeast does not do this, throw it out and go to the store. It's probably old. Old yeast leads to dense buns!

While the yeast is foaming, get out your mixer and combine 3 3/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon cloves, 1/4 teaspoon allspice, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Once the yeast/milk is all foamy, slowly add that to the flour/spice mix while it's running on low. Add two room temperature eggs, one at a time. Then add the 1/4 cup softened butter. If you aren't already using the dough hook attachment, switch it out now. Let the dough hook knead the dough until it's smooth and elastic. About 5 minutes.

Take the dough out of the mixer and put it on a lightly floured surface (it will be all wrapped up around the hook - just slide it right off). Begin kneading the dough by hand, incorporating 1 cup of craisins. This is the toughest part - the dough should be really elastic. Almost rubbery. Just keep at it and eventually you'll get all those little craisins folded in. Some might pop out toward the end, but that's ok.

Put the ball of dough in a bowl with a little bit of oil in the bottom - just enough to barely coat the dough. Turn it over in the oil a few times, cover with plastic wrap or a towel and put in a warm place. The oven (turned off) works well. I put mine outside on the patio table.

Let the dough rise for roughly 1 1/2 hours. It will double in size and look something like this.

Punch the dough down and divide into 16 equal balls. For me, it's easy to ensure equal sizes if I divide it into half, then each into half again so that I have quarters. Then get 4 rolls out of each quarter. Confused? Just do whatever works for you.

Place the 16 balls onto sheet pans lined with parchment paper. Brush them lightly with an egg wash made of 1 egg and 1 tablespoon of milk.

Cover and set aside for another 30 minutes to rise.

Take kitchen shears and snip the top of each bun to make a cross. Honestly, this step could probably be skipped. It really doesn't make a difference in the final product. But I'm a sucker for the details when baking.

Brush the buns with the egg wash mixture one more time and pop them into a 400 degree oven for 12-15 minutes.

Set aside to let them cool and try to keep your family from eating them all at one time. But they are seriously yummy when warm and fresh from the oven.

Once they have cooled, if they haven't all been gobbled up, brush or pipe icing made of confectioners sugar and milk on the top. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup confectioners sugar and 1 tablespoon milk for the icing. You can make it a little thicker with more confectioners sugar if you prefer.

And there you have it. Hot cross buns. We ended up making two batches this year and probably could have made a third. They don't keep well for long so plan to eat or share them within a day or two. If your family is at all like mine, that won't be a problem.

I hope you are inspired to try these for yourself next year. And that you had a blessed day with family, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. He is risen!

Happy Easter!