Crosses by Industrial Methods

Today it is Good Friday, and that implies hot-cross buns...

In previous years, I have presented on BlipFoto our involvement with baking spiced buns for this day.

Here is

2010 Friday 2 April: Hot uncrossed buns!

2011 Friday 22 April: Good Friday Food

2012 Friday 6 April: Cross-less Cuisine

You will see that there are allusions to the absence of crosses, which is somewhat peculiar given the usual name of these buns, and the reason that they are baked on this day...

The excuse was laziness, and the small reward for significant effort. Now we have thought up a possible new technique for putting the crosses on top. We did not actually use it today, because we felt that builders' caulk might have an adverse effect on the taste as well as quite probably on the texture. Without a readily found icing pump, we adapted another method, in which the cross mixture was put in a plastic bag, in one corner of which we had pierced a small hole. Squeezing the bag produced a thin pipe of dough that could easily be guided over the buns.

We were inspired this year by a TV programme about Easter food presented in part by Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry. They showed how to make the "Ultimate Hot-Cross Buns" !!!!! This is Hollywood's recipe, although we did not include the apple that was so much favoured by the Bake-Off judges.

The key spice ingredient is, of course, cinnamon, which someone commented last year is very good for you. We used two varieties: "very top grade" Ceylon Cinnamon, given by our daughter-in-Law some years ago, and Makara (Korinje) Cinnamon, from Cinnabon, and given to me by ViolaMaths on my birthday four years ago. It's wonderful stuff (as are Cinnabons) [end of commercials...]

For our records (and possibly your entertainment) here are some of the steps in our work:

Ready for the oven;

Painting with Apricot-Jam glaze;

Ready for Eating.