She uses a mixer to combine the ingredients and says the resulting dough must have a shine to it as that indicates the gluten strands have been stretched enough. While her own bun dough is proved in a special machine, she suggests at home, you keep the dough in a mixing bowl and place that inside a plastic bag to prove until it has almost-but-not quite doubled. Make sure it is not near a draught because cold kills the living yeast. Leanne then kneads it on a table for about 10 minutes for elasticity and to "stretch" the gluten in the dough. Ben says the temperature has to be just right for making buns – not too hot, not too cold, not too humid. Daniel proves his main dough for three hours. "At home if you are using a commercial yeast, you just wait until it doubles in size, about an hour," he says. While cinnamon and nutmeg are the most common spices used in hot cross buns, there's no reason why you can't experiment. In the batch Leanne makes for taste, she uses five-spice. Daniel has "the usual suspects, cinnamon and nutmeg, plus a little bit of cardamom as well," he says. "What makes our buns a bit unique is we use a whole orange puree and a whole ginger puree." In Europe, fresh fruit was hard to come by so bakers traditionally used dried fruits. "...We use Australian currants and sultanas," says Daniel. "We don't have to presoak anything, because our dough is quite wet. But if you are doing it domestically, I would be pre-soaking the fruit in just a little bit of water." Daniel's dough is divided in 14 pieces of 100g that are rounded into a ball and placed on a tray about 1cm apart, so when they prove again, they will touch each other. Leanne's dough is measured out in 120g lots, and also placed about 1cm apart, on baking paper on a tray. The Easter bun cross is a symbol of the crucifixion of Christ. For his cross mix, Daniel uses sifted self-raising flour, the same amount of water, plus an extra 10 per cent. For example 100g of flour and 110g of water, plus a tablespoon olive oil or canola oil. What you want to achieve is a crunchy dough and chewy centre, so oven temperature and timing counts. "It's between 20 and 25 minutes, probably the same at home in a 220C oven," says Daniel. Leanne's are cooked for 35 minutes at 180C in a commercial oven. "But at home, I'd start out at 220C to get that nice crust on top and then turn down to 180C after 15 minutes," she says. After baking, Leanne taps the bottom of a hot cross bun and if it sounds hollows, she knows they are cooked. The glaze is added after baking to give the buns shine. "We use a one-to-one sugar syrup. You want to highlight the spices in the bun, so I don't add any flavour," says Daniel. Leanne uses a glaze of equal amounts of melted sugar and honey with a split vanilla bean. "I like eating them pretty fresh – not hot – a few hours after baking because you want to taste the spices, with some French butter or good Aussie artisan butter," Daniel says. Ben, after baking tens of thousands of hot cross buns over the years, likes his served straight out of the oven, with lashings of butter. Information in this article is correct as of 19 March 2013. Taste.com.au - March 2013 Grant Jones Like
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