Happy Easter! Hot Cross Buns (tangzhong method)

Happy Easter Monday! How was your Easter weekend? I had a good weekend gathering with friends as a friend living in Sydney came back to celebrate her birthday. I took this chance to try making Baileys cream cheese frosting for the Guinness Chocolate Cake. As I only had Chocolate Baileys, I used that for the frosting. We loved the cake! Hope you have a chance to try it too.

While waiting for the Guinness cake to be baked, I also made some hot cross buns for Easter. My friend, K was curious how to draw the cross on the buns and popped by while I was baking these buns. She was amazed that the crosses stayed white while the rest of the buns turn golden brown.

Hot Cross Buns (recipe adapted from here)
Tangzhong - 25g bread flour and 125ml milk
350g bread flour
45g sugar
56g egg lightly whisked
125ml milk
6g instant yeast
30g softened butter
100g raisins
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves

1) Make the tangzhong by mixing the 25g bread flour with 125ml milk. Heat the mixture over low fire till the mixture thickens. Cool before use.

2) Add all the ingredients into a mixing bowl except the raisins and butter. Using a dough hook, mix  the ingredients into a dough.

3) Add the butter and raisins and mix well.

4) Continue kneading the dough till elastic and stretchable. It took about 10 minutes on my Kenwood Chef.

5) Cover the mixing bowl with a damp cloth and leave it to double in a warm place (I left the mixing bowl on the door of my oven with the oven set to the lowest temperature). It took about 40 minutes.

6) Flour your hands and work surface. Shape the dough into small buns (I divided the dough into 60g balls) and leave them to rise on a lined cookie tray for 30 mins.

7) Mix 4 tbsp flour with 2 tbsp water to make a flour paste.

8) Brush some milk or egg on each buns and pipe a cross using the flour paste.

9) Bake the buns at 190 deg C for about 20-25 mins till golden brown.

The buns stayed soft for 4 days in a ziplock bag in room temperature. You may serve them with butter or marmalade if you like.

Happy Easter!