This recipe originally comes from the Delicious Magazine website.

Ingredients

425g strong plain white bread flour, plus extra for dusting

½ tsp salt

50g butter, softened

7g sachet easy-blend fast-action yeast

1 tsp ground cinnamon

25g light muscovado sugar

1 eating apple, cored and finely diced (I used a Pink Lady apple)

150g dried cranberries

125ml milk, plus extra for brushing

400g natural colour marzipan

Method

1. Place the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and rub it in until it resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the yeast, then add all the remaining ingredients except the milk and marzipan.

2. Pour the milk into a jug and add 125ml boiling water. Stir into the dough and mix well until it gathers into a soft ball.

3. Turn the mixture out onto a floured work surface and knead for 5 minutes until smooth and elastic. Cut off about 75g marzipan and reserve to make the crosses. Cut the remaining marzipan into twenty four 1cm cubes. Form the dough into a fat sausage and cut into 12 slices, cut each slice in half and place a piece of marzipan in the centre of each and pinch the dough around it. Roll into a ball and place on a baking tray.

4. Roll out the reserved marzipan into tiny thin sausages and use to make crosses on the buns. Cover loosely with cling film. Leave in a warm place, for about an hour, until doubled in size and the dough feels very light and airy.

5. Preheat the oven to 200C/fan180c/gas 6. When ready to bake, brush the top of the risen buns with milk. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes until golden brown.

Enjoy – Happy Easter!

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There is still time to make treats for Easter, and these hot cross buns are amazingly good! I know what you’re thinking: “Your buns haven’t got crosses on though…” – and you are (obviously) correct! This was because I don’t have a new piping bag yet, and the mix I made was a bit lumpy and did not want to go through my badly made excuse for a piping bag. But never mind – they are hot (but not crossed) buns here!

These little buns are a great if you’re not a huge fan of dried fruit – I adapted the recipe here by not including mixed dried fruit and adding extra chocolate chips! I did add candied peel in here, but you could leave it out if you really don’t like the fruit. If you would prefer a more traditional batch of hot cross buns, try this recipe that I posted last Easter. Bear in mind that hot cross buns take a long time, but they are so worth the wait and effort!

This recipe was taken from the Spring 2014 edition of Woman & Home: Feel Good Food magazine.

Ingredients

7g sachet fast action dried yeast
175g/6oz caster sugar
250ml/9fl oz warm semi-skimmed milk
600g/1lb 5oz strong white bread flour
3 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
zest of 3 oranges and juice of 1 1/2
75g/3oz unsalted butter, plus 1 tbsp melted
125g/4 1/2 oz mixed dried fruit (or 100g/4oz candied peel)
150g/5oz dark chocolate chips
1 egg yolk, mixed with 1 tbsp milk
50g/2oz plain flour

Method

1. Place the yeast in a bowl and mix with 1 tbsp of the caster sugar. Add 4 tbsp of the warm milk and leave to foam for 5 minutes.

2. In a separate bowl, add the flour, 125g/4 1/2oz of the sugar, a pinch of salt, spices, zest and butter and, using the tips of your fingers, rub together until it resembles breadcrumbs. Stir through the dried fruit or peel and the chocolate chips.

3. Pour in the yeast mixture, juice of 1 orange and most of the remaining milk. Mix it to a sticky dough, adding more milk if needed. Knead for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. Place on a baking sheet and cover with greased clingfilm. Leave to rise in a warm place for 1 to 2 hours, or until doubled in size.

4. Divide into 24 equal balls and place in rows, almost touching each other, on a greased baking sheet. Cover with the clingfilm again and leave for another hour to double in size again.

5. Heat the oven to 190C (170C Fan)/375F/Gas mark 5. Brush the egg yolk mixture over the buns. Mix the flour with 1 tbsp of melted butter and spoon into a piping bag with a plain nozzle. Pipe a cross on each bun and bake for 10 to 15 minutes until golden.

6. Heat the remaining 50g/2oz sugar with the juice of 1/2 an orange until dissolved. Brush over the buns as soon as they come out of the oven and allow to cool.

These buns are even yummier when still slightly warm…enjoy one with a cuppa! Or maybe two – they’re only small!

The post Mini chocolate and orange hot cross buns appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

This recipe is another from Tom’s mum and it is really simple, but as with all hot cross bun recipes it does take a lot of time. But it is well worth it to have freshly made hot cross buns and Easter and they will make your kitchen smell amazing!

Ingredients

340g/12oz strong white bread flour
55g/2oz light muscovado sugar (I used dark because, as usual, I realised I didn’t have any!)
2tsp mixed spice
Half a tsp of grated nutmeg
Half a tsp salt
2 packets easyblend yeast
55g/2oz sultanas
55g/2oz mixed peel
6fl oz warm milk and water mixed (I used about 4 fl oz of milk and topped with boiling water)
1 egg, beaten
55g/2oz melted butter

Method

1. Put all of the dry ingredients and fruit into a bowl and mix well.

2. Add all of the wet ingredients and mix well – the mixture will be sticky! Cover and set to rise for about 2 hours in a warm place (as it rises you’ll hear it sound like Rice Krispies when you’ve just poured the milk on!)

3. Turn out the dough and knead, before dividing into 12 and shaping into buns. Cut crosses in the top and place on a baking sheet and leave to rise again for about 40-50 minutes.

4. Bake in a preheated oven at 425F/220C/Gas mark 7 for 20-25 minutes, but keep an eye on them because mine cooked rather quickly!

5. Whilst still warm, glaze the buns with 1tbsp sugar dissolved in 1tbsp warm milk. Put the kettle on and enjoy whilst they’re warm!

Now, you may be wondering why my buns have weird shapes on…well, I found a really cool thing on pinterest about making bunny bread and I had an idea that I could try it with hot cross buns – to make hot cross bunnies! But it didn’t quite go to plan and I think they look more like hot cross stegosauruses…but they taste good! The bunny bread looks like this:

Mine looked like this when I made the ears:

Maybe it was the fruit in the buns that made it difficult?! I don’t know…will have to try another time! Whether you make hot cross buns or try your own hot cross bunnies, I hope you have a very Happy Easter!

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