h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Not sure if this is UK centrik or not... maybe so... maybe not... they've probably got differnt names elsewhere, or haven't, of course, as the case may be.

We don't have an entry on them?!

They're enriched sweet breads, yeast, but sugar and eggs and suchlike, plus spices....

I've been doing some research, and there seems to be a lot of chefs who should know better, putting all kinds of weird and wonderful additions in terms of ingreidents, or unnecessary steps in to tehir manafacture...

So.
I think I can figure out the basic dough bit-
some fruit zests (orange, lemon seem popular),
dried fruits (sultanas raisens, err and whatever the other ones are called),
bread (strong) flour, yeast, salt (for dough retardation), sugar (yeast activation),
Sugar to sweeten the dough,
Spices; cinnamon and nutmeg, and probably a 'mixed spice', too (sounding a bit like teacakses so far, IMO).
sugar, jam, treacle, or some such 'wash' to go on the outside after cooking before cooling.

I vaguely* remember soemthing in the back of my head, about almonds and hot ross buns, but fail to find anything yet, in my internet researches.... anyone know anything about that?

The 'cross'.... I'm gathering though don't see any strict conformace betwen differnt recipies, that this is a kinda flour/water mix just 'painted' or 'piped' on, but I'm not sure... Havening eaten a bun or tow... I think it might be somethign else in that too.... (regualr bread flour? rice flour (like for tiger bread)? or... soemthing else.... (insert ground almond in it?))

Anyone? and when is one meant* to be eating htem anyhow.... can I make them tomorrow or is that too* early?
(if I can figure it out I might be able to write up as an entry, unless, of course we do have one and I failed to find it, or it hid from me behidn the potted plants)

Hot X Buns

Quite popular here in Canada but usually only during the Easter
season and mass (pun not intended) produced by the big commercial
white bread bakeries. Sold in bunches of a half dozen rolls in a
tear-apart format they are not much different from their usual
raisin bread recipe but baked like dinner rolls - except (and this
is the `hot cross` bit) they have an X of white icing on top of
each bun-roll. Otherwise they are basically brown bread with a
few raisins and a bit more sugar thrown in.

Here`s a pic of the six pack type loaf and a full recipe for
home bakers which contains many unsuspected ingredients
including currants instead of raisins -
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/7695/hot+cross+buns


-jwf-

yes, they are useually only here in the Easter period... Even if the shops do seem to believe that Easter is now starting as soon as they've taken all the old Christmas stock off the shelves

Looks exactly the same recipe as the ones I've seen for UK versions... (I'm having to guess a bit looking at the cup measurements, s but proportions seems about the same, though no fruit zest bits in that one, unlike a lot of the UK ones (lemon zest, orange zest etc)) hmmm... no almond again... maybe I imagined the almond...

sultarnas and raisens and things are all kinda the same I think... well sort of I'll use.... whatever I have in teh cupbaord of that sort of thing err raisens I think, and maybe sultarnas or... soemthing

Thinking thus far of doing three sorts; all the same dough, but differnt 'pastes' for the piping on the crosses; one with almond in the paste, one with just* flour and water, and one using rice flour and water... I dunno why... I've got this feeling about rice flour... It might* work... or not...

I love hot cross buns, I'm so old I can remember the days when they were only made by the bakery on Good Friday - so you had to be sure to get some on the day or do without. I believe the tradition was that you were allowed to eat them after midday, maybe this was the beginning of the end of lent? So you could start to eat food that wasn't so plain...? We had them as pudding after eating fish.

We also had to make them at school and the 'cross' part was simply flour and water. I took a quick look at some other recipes and one says make it into a paste and stick thin strips over the top of the bun and the other says make a paste which is piped over the top. Obviously there must be more water in the paste that you pipe, but it was still just flour and water

Because I really like to eat them, I don't mind them being in the shops from the time when they stop selling mince pies. I did a little at the advert that shows hot cross buns with chocolate chunks. But whatever, I guess they will sell them to people who've not got the association hot cross buns used to have with the Christian period of Lent.

Damnyou 2legs! I really fancy one for breakfast and we ran out.

Good luck with the baking!

Why don't supermarkets do offers where if you spend £50 or more, you can buy Hot Cross Buns one-a-penny two-a-penny? I'd shop there if they did.

I like my hot cross buns toasted and with honey and cream.

Incidentally, there's a recipe on how to make another Easter treat here:
http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/make-your-own-cadbury-creme-eggs-how-to-homemade-easter-recipe-092758473.html

(I must stop looking at , only 3 days to go before Lent is over!)

<BB<

There's a toasted teacake recipe by someone or other, A87772387 that will do for hot cross buns. Use the quantities in that recipe to make 12 buns rather than 6 teacakes. Add a few more spices if you want. While they're cooking heat one tablespoon of sugar with one tablespoon of water in a small saucepan. As soon as the buns come out of the oven, brush this sugar mixture over the top of them. When cool, use a yellow highlighter pen to draw on crosses.

They're bath buns with the cross piped on in a flour and water mixture, AFAIK. I have made them in the past (for Good Friday) but not recently.

Any sweet buns, toasted with butter, is fine by me.

>> Why don't supermarkets do offers where if you spend £50 or more, you can buy Hot Cross Buns one-a-penny two-a-penny? I'd shop there if they did.

GENIUS idea BB.

I always thought that hot cross buns were the only acceptable sweet cakes during Lent. The crosses on top served to make the buns "religious" items. I've never made them, but they're okay. What I have made is a Russian Easter cake that uses fruitcake fruits, but has a lighter batter and some drizzle frosting made with sugar and lemon juice.

You can have Simnel during Lent too.

<BB<

>> When cool, use a yellow highlighter pen to draw on crosses. <<



I just don't know if you're kidding or not.
The scary thing is I almost believe you.
There are so many 'religious' practises that baffle me.


~jwf~

Using a yellow highlighter is now a religious practice?

<BB<

"There are so many 'religious' practices that baffle me." [jwf]

This is slightly off-topic, but my nephew's wife saw at least five different skulls that purported to be the skull of John the Baptist when she was in Europe. There was a small one that was apparently the skull of John the Baptist when he was a child.

Trust me, new "religious" practices continue to be coined. Nothing is too weird to be off-limits.

Hot cross buns are actually kind of nice.

>> a small one that was apparently the skull
of John the Baptist when he was a child. <<




~jwf~

There was a somewhat delicate portion of Jesus' anatomy that was supposed to have been preserved as a religious relic in some church in Italy. I honestly couldn't believe that people would be so gullible as to believe anything like that has been preserved for 2000+ years....

well at least it wasn't commemorated in the shape of a bun

I may have been not entirely serious with the yellow highlighter jwf. The rest of the post 6 was serious though - that teacake recipe of 2legs is a good basis for a hot cross bun, especially if you put a sugar glaze on them.

I've not really done any cake baking for years and years (talking about like way back in my childhood, at school, or at home with Mother sort of time ago)

I saw a few places, recipies on the net, for hotcross buns, all of which mentioned the 'glaze' you put on after baking but before they've cooled; the sugar glaze seemed the most prevalant, but some.... 'poncy chefs', err sorry, I mean 'celib chefs', want you to do sily things using various jams, or trecle or something instead... I'll stick to the sugar glaze, I've got sugar and water so that is just easier

I have concerns over whether the method of creating the cross; making a 'dough', to 'stick on (rolling it into long pieces I guess and cutting thin), if that'd actually* stick properly, so I think I'll go for the making a paste, and 'piping' it on (I understanding I can make my own piping bag using a food bag, and just cutting the corner off as I don't happen to have a piping set to hand, unless you count my highland bagpipes, but I think they're not cooking related, err, not music related either, mind, in my hands...)

I've got a couple of silicon brush type things for use in the kitchen (which I usueally don't bother to ever use, unless 'painting' milk ontop of a loaf of bread, or on top of rolls , so I guess I can get use out of them, for the sugar glaze thing

I thought most the recipies I looked at, did sound rather simular to my toasted teacake recipie so I'll kinda follow that, for the main dough,

Not at all sure about this thing with putting peel in....; am I meant to go buy an orange, and an apple, and a lemon, and just get some of the 'peel' of them, with a grater, and throw that in? what about the rest of the fruit, I guess they'd either have to go to waste, or be used up quickly for something else... (well, OK even I might actually just eat the apple after stealing some of its peel), so I'm not sure if I can be.... bothered to get any fruit in to just steal a bit of peel off of it I'm guessing you can't buy 'peel' in a jar

I may have to go buy some hotcross buns from teh shop, as I cna't have actually eaten a shop-bought one in years and years, just to remind me what they taste like

Still got this notion in the back of my head, about almond paste, for the cross... though I can't quite place where that idea irigionates from

I think they probably mean candied peel, which you can buy in a jar (well, plastic tub probably). It's used a lot in fruit cakes and is the work of the devil

Sometimes they use a kind of almond paste marzipan
instead of just oozy white icing for the cross-bit.

This is generally drier and harder and less likely
to smear on the plastic wrapper and there seems no
obvious other reason for this than perhaps they had
some left over from Xmas.

~jwf~

PS: I enjoyed the link hd posted to your recipe.
A87772387