I will never outgrow Easter egg hunts. Nor will I ever tire of Nanaimo bars, even though their sweetness level is high enough to turn off a lot of grown ups. How to bump them up a notch? combine the two – hide a few Cadbury’s Easter Creme Eggs in the middle frosting layer. I did this for the Eyeopener this week. Oh yes.
My three favourite ways to eat hot cross buns are as follows: 1) warm, straight from the oven, with butter. 2) pulled in half (not sliced, so you get the craggy edges) and toasted, with butter. 3) buttered and stuffed with aged cheddar or Gouda or whatever cheese you happen to be loving at the moment, for breakfast, lunch or dinner. It occurred to me yesterday, when I realized it was a week from Easter and spontaneously decided to make a batch of hot cross buns, that there aren’t a huge number of recipes out there for them – it doesn’t seem to be a staple in baking books, so I went back to my old standby. They’re fairly simple to mix together, as yeast doughs go-it’s a nice buttery one, flavoured with orange zest and studded with currants or raisins. If you like candied peel, and can find some good stuff, go for it-I tend to leave it out and rely on lots of cinnamonContinue reading
Over the past week or so, a half dozen people have said to me – mostly in passing – please tell me you have a hot cross bun recipe! Which makes me partly wonder why there’s such desperation for a good recipe, and whether or not people actually do make them from scratch, or just like the idea of making their own. A hot cross bun will always in my mind be cinnamon-heavy and come from a bag, with a soft, squishy supermarket texture and rubbery not-really-icing crosses, that are only really worth eating when toasted and heavily buttered. I’ve made a few good batches in the past, but nothing worthy of looking forward to year after year. Despite their carbiness and spices and dried fruit, most hot cross buns do not live up to their potential. (Mostly – no offense to anyone’s buns.) But a cinnamon-raisin bun should be delicious.
