Rum Raisin Sourdough Hot Cross Buns

April 23, 2019 By Korena in the Kitchen 1 Comment

I first got into sourdough baking back in 2011 after making my own starter as part of a Daring Bakers Challenge. I loved baking with it and maintained it faithfully for almost four years, but then my schedule started getting busier and my poor little sourdough starter eventually died from neglect in the back of my fridge 🙁 I was pretty sad about it (and kind of embarrassed too – you’ll notice that I never mentioned it here until now!), but I didn’t have the time or energy to put into cultivating or acquiring and maintaining a new starter. Recently though, I’d been wanting to get back into the sourdough game (have you SEEN all the gorgeous sourdough bread on Instagram?!), so last week when a friend offered me some of her 100 year old rye starter, I jumped at the chance. I have been nursing a little glass jar of bubbling flour and water on my kitchen counter ever since and I couldn’t be happier about it! I’ve noticed that this well-established starter is more reliable and predictable than the one I made myself, which probably never quite achieved its full strength as a starter, and I’m very excited to experiment with it.

See all those happy little bubbles?

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Stella Parks’ Spiced Vanilla Hot Cross Buns

March 31, 2018 By Korena in the Kitchen Leave a Comment

Guys, I’m having a serious moment with Stella Parks, aka BraveTart. By which I mean, I want to bake all her stuff. Luckily, “her stuff” includes a killer recipe for hot cross buns, so I’m back this year (after a brief hiatus last year) with HCB take seven on the blog. In the past I’ve dabbled in various combinations of chocolate, sourdough, cider, porter, honey, and tea infused HCBs, and this year’s version comes with a hit of vanilla and the unexpected addition of Greek yogurt. One of the things I love best about Parks’ recipes is the way she explains the science behind certain ingredients. In this case, the Greek yogurt adds softness and moisture to the dough, and its acidity also helps with gluten development (and now I understand what “The Lemon Juice Secret” is from the back of the Rogers Flour bag!).

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Hot Cross Buns V6.0

April 10, 2016 By Korena in the Kitchen 10 Comments

On the Saturday of Easter weekend, we painted our living room. Painting a room doesn’t seem like a big job until you start, and then it becomes apparent just exactly how huge of an undertaking it really is – or rather, just how much prep work there is, what with all the buying of tools and prep and sanding and taping and cutting-in of edges before you even get to the actual painting. All this to say that by Saturday night, I was so exhausted I could barely see straight – yet somehow I still managed to be shaping spicy, citrusy, dried fruit-laden dough into hot cross buns at 11:30 at night, as one does when one doesn’t think Easter is Easter without hot cross buns. So yes, like last year, we are talking about hot cross buns two weeks after the fact.

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Honeyed Hot Cross Buns

April 14, 2015 By Korena in the Kitchen 6 Comments

Honeyed Hot Cross Buns | Korena in the Kitchen I know, I know, Easter was so two weeks ago. But seeing as I’ve posted about hot cross buns every year since I started this blog, I couldn’t NOT post about this year’s version. Just bookmark this recipe for next year and call it advance preparation. ; )

Honeyed Hot Cross Buns | Korena in the Kitchen

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Sourdough Cider Hot Cross Buns with Chocolate Chunks

April 20, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 19 Comments

Sourdough Cider Hot Cross Buns with Chocolate Chunks | Korena in the Kitchen As I pointed out last month, Christmas cookies and hot cross buns are about the only seasonal things I manage to post about with any punctuality… and seeing as today is Easter Sunday, hot cross buns are most definitely on the menu. This month’s Sourdough Surprises project was sourdough hot cross buns, which I also tackled last year with a chocolate porter version. I decided to go a similar route this time around, adapting a recipe that used hard apple cider to make an overnight sourdough levain. And, because for me, Easter is all about chocolate, I added a generous amount of dark chocolate chunks to the dough.

Sourdough Cider Hot Cross Buns with Chocolate Chunks | Korena in the Kitchen …

Chocolate Porter Sourdough Hot Cross Buns

March 31, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 32 Comments

Chocolate Porter Sourdough Hot Cross Buns Happy Easter! I hope the Easter Bunny brought you all lots of chocolate. :)

This Easter I wanted to make some special hot cross buns (as in, more special than these or these). I was thinking something along the lines of “hot cross bunnies” (haha, I’m so punny… bunny… sorry) but then I came across these spiced stout sourdough beauties from Lauren Bakes (she recently posted a chocolate chip version, too), which stopped me dead in my cutesy little bunny tracks. Her recipe contained dried fruit soaked in tea plus a sourdough levain made with Guinness, which I swapped out for chocolate porter because, well, I’ll take any excuse to buy it, really….

Chocolate Hot Cross Buns

April 7, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 7 Comments

Once again, the start of spring and the approach of Easter mean that it’s hot cross bun season. I had pretty good success last year making hot cross buns, so I gave them another try – but this time I added chocolate, because almost anything is better when you add chocolate. Prior to this, I had never actually had a chocolate hot cross bun, but I have seen them in bakeries and heard wonderful things about them (apparently they are very popular in Australia). There doesn’t seem to be a huge amount of recipes available on the internet, so I decided to come up with my own. I added cocoa powder and chocolate chips (plus dried cherries and apricots) to my existing hot cross bun recipe, along with a healthy dose of cinnamon and cardamom, with which I have recently become enamoured and which happens to go very well with chocolate. And for the cross on top, white chocolate….

Welcoming Spring with Hot Cross Buns

March 22, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 7 Comments

Spring is here! I know this because last weekend I went for a run in a t-shirt, there are crocuses everywhere, the cherry trees are blossoming, and hot cross buns are appearing on the bakery shelves. Also, Sunday was the first day of spring, so… I guess that makes it official.

I like hot cross buns – or rather, I want to like hot cross buns, but I rarely find a store-bought one that meets my expectations. Mostly because they all contain either candied peel or glacée fruit (bleh!). I also find the texture of store-bought hot cross buns to be somewhat lacking, so I decided to try making them myself.

I’ve gotten fairly comfortable with yeast doughs through experimenting with the no-knead doughs in the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day (which is super fantastic and I would recommend to everyone), and I had an idea of what kind of dough/final texture I was looking for. I considered using the no-knead challah dough from Artisan Bread, but then I realized that I just needed to find a recipe that used a similar kind of dough, enriched with butter and eggs. I finally settled on a Martha Stewart recipe, which had an enriched dough that contained lemon and orange zest, but no spices. So, I consulted a Canadian Living recipe and used it as a basis for adding cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves to the Martha Stewart recipe. The result is exactly what I ever could have wanted in a hot cross bun: rich, dense-but-light texture, just the right spice with citrus notes, and best of all, no nasty candied peel or glacée fruit! In my search for the perfect recipe, I came across several that contained only currants, and one with golden raisins and dried cherries, so I used all three, and it’s a great combination. Another thing to consider was what kind of “cross” to put on the buns – a flour/water paste combination applied before baking, or an icing cross applied after baking. My personal preference is for the flour/water paste, so I went with that. As a result, there is actually nothing about the recipe I would change next time – I would just refine my technique a little!

I halved the original recipe (which yielded two dozen), and after the first rise, I took half the dough and stuck it in the freezer because I though that twelve buns at once would be overkill, so I only ended up with six buns. When I decide I want more (which will probably be much sooner than later!), I will let the dough thaw to room temperature, divide it into six, and continue on from the second rise….