Hot Cross Buns

Dave and I were watching Jeopardy the other night and one of the answers was hot cross buns. He looked at me and said he'd never had a hot cross bun - and neither have I. So guess what I made today as my boredom buster thing to do?

Yep. We got buns. (And they turned out great!)

Apricot-Raisin Hot Cross Buns

• 4-4.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water (110')
• 1/8 teaspoon sugar
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs (plus 1 egg white, see below)
• 1/2 cup finely snipped dried apricots
• 1/2 cup raisins, coarsely chopped
• 1 egg white, beaten
• 1 tablespoon water
• dried apricots cut into strips (optional) or confections' sugar glaze (optional)

Step 1

In a large mixing bowl place 2 cups of the flour; set aside. In a small bowl combine the yeast, warm water, and 1/8 t. sugar. Stir until yeast is dissolved; set aside. In a medium saucepan heat and stir the milk, butter, 1/3 cup sugar, and salt until warm (120'- 130'F) and butter almost melts. Add to flour mixture along with the yeast mixture and eggs. Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed for 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl constantly. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Stir in apricots, raisins and as much of the remaining flour as you can with a wooden spoon.

Step 2

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough remaining flour to make a moderately soft (not sticky) dough that is smooth and elastic (3 to 5 minutes total). Shape dough in a ball. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease surface of dough. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in size (about 1-1 1/2 hours).

Step 3

Punch dough down. Turn out onto a floured surface. Cover and let rest 10 minutes. Grease two baking sheets; set aside. Divide dough into 20 portions; shape each into a smooth ball. Place balls 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Cover; let rise until nearly double (45 to 60 minutes). 

Step 4

Preheat oven to 375'. Make a crisscross slash across top of each bun with a sharp knife or scissors. In a small cup combine beaten egg white and water. Brush mixture over buns. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown, rotating baking sheets halfway through baking. Top with apricot strips or glaze in an x-shape if desired. Serve warm. Store remaining buns in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 3 days. To reheat, place 1 or 2 buns at a time on a microwave-safe plate and heat 15-20 seconds. Makes 20 buns. 

per serving: 177 calories; 6 g total fat; 28 g carb; 1 g  fiber; 8 g sugar; 4 g protein

© Copyright 2020 bhg.com. All rights reserved. Printed from https://www.bhg.com 04/10/2020


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4.11.19: Al and Cathy's DIY fire pit

4.11.18: disposable cake pans

4.11.17: freezing avocados

4.11.16: easy chair back covers

Crescent Rolls

Here's the recipe for the rolls I made to take to Thanksgiving dinner - I wasn't sure if I loved them but then they got such rave reviews I've decided to keep the recipe and will make again for sure. These are quite easy to make and didn't take nearly as long as I thought - I made them the day before thinking they'd need more time but after reading the directions thru I see that they only need 3 hours start to finish so next time I'll make them the same day and time it to bake them shortly before dinner is ready so they'll be hot and fresh. Apparently they were an even bigger hit for breakfast the next morning!

This recipe is from howdoesshe.com, I printed their recipe below but click here if you want to see their step by step directions.

proofing the yeast

super sticky wet dough

let it rise, then split into 4 equal sized rounds

roll out to an approx 12" - 14" circle 

let 'em rise again for about 30 minutes before baking. 

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups of milk
• 3/4 cup + 1 Tablespoon Sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 Tablespoon salt
• 2 Tablespoons yeast
• 2 cups of warm water
• about 9-10 cups of all purpose flour
• at least 1 cup of butter

Instructions

1. Scald 1 1/2 cups of milk, 3/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup of butter, in a microwave safe bowl, for about 2 minutes. Cutting the butter into pieces helps it melt faster. There will probably be some little cubes of butter still floating in the hot mixture, they will melt.
2. add yeast to this hot mixture, but it will be too hot to just dump the yeast straight in (it would kill it!). To cool it down stir in 1-2 cups of flour, then add 1 egg and 1 Tablespoon of salt, and leave it to cool for a couple of minutes. Meanwhile, in a measuring cup dissolve 2 Tablespoons of yeast in 2 cups of warm water and 1 Tablespoon of sugar. Let it sit for a couple of minutes until it is bubbly.
3. Make sure your milk mixture is just warm, not boiling and add the yeast mixture!
4. Using a fork or wooden spoon, gradually stir in 9-10 cups of flour (counting the flour you have already added to cool it earlier). I would recommend only adding 2 cups at time and stirring in between. These rolls turn out so much better when they are mixed by hand.
5. At the end the dough will be dense and sticky, and may be hard to stir, you can use your hands to incorporate the rest of the flour if needed. Be sure not to add too much flour. Then smooth the dough out and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Leave it in a warm place and let it rise.
6. When your dough is close to raising completely, butter 2 cookie sheets and set them aside.
7. Let the dough raise until it has doubled in size.
8. Cover your working space with flour to prevent the dough from sticking. Dump your dough out and divide it into 4 balls. Eyeball the sizes, then lift them up and feel the weight of each ball. Try to make them even, but they don’t have to be perfect.
9. Using one ball of dough at a time: roll the dough into a circle on a floured counter. Once it is rolled out spread the top with butter from edge to edge. You will use about 2 Tablespoons per circle of dough.
10. Cut the dough into quarters using a pizza cutter.
11. Then cut each quarter into 3 pieces. You should end up with 12 triangles from each circle of dough.
12. Roll the dough starting with the wide end of the triangle
13. Tuck the tail of the triangle under the roll and place it on the buttered cookie sheet. You will make 3 rows, with 8 rolls per row. This will give you 24 rolls per pan. Two balls of dough will fill 1 pan. You will get a total of 48 rolls!
14. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Place the pans of rolls in a warm place (on top of the oven if possible) to let them rise. Once they are touching and full in size, cook (one pan at a time) in the oven ’till they are golden brown. About 10 – 15 minutes, It may take longer depending on how hot your oven cooks. Keep a close eye on your first pan to get the right time for the second.
15. While they are still hot and fresh out of the oven run a stick of butter over the tops of the rolls for a delicious buttery glaze.