The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Chocolate Hot Cross Buns with a secret spice - crushed cardamom

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

Chocolate Hot Cross Buns with a secret spice - crushed cardamom

This might not be the traditional Hot Cross Bun but my Easter won’t feel like one without Chocolate Hot Cross Buns.

I based the recipe largely on the traditional Hot Cross bun I made last week. I included sourdough starter in the recipe for extra flavour. The starter didn’t help much with the rising, if at all. I also couldn’t taste any acidity from the starter.

Inspired by The Flavour Thesaurus book (the book about flavour pairing), I included crushed cardamom and cinnamon in the bread dough instead of mixed spices (sorry, the Hot Cross bun hard-core). The book suggested that cardamom, when paired with chocolate, makes chocolate taste rather expensive. That was interesting and I was curious to find out.

The cardamom does make the chocolate aroma nicer, lovely. The bread smells fantastic. I don’t want to sound too overly excited...I totally love this bun. It was the best chocolate hot cross bun I ever had, still drooling thinking about it. I can't tell which buns I love more, traditional or chocolate...they're both equally nice. I'll let my family decide when they have these two on Easter Friday.

Full post and recipe is here.

Sue

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com

Comments

mrfrost's picture
mrfrost

Those look delicious. And so pretty too.

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

Thank you Mr Frost for the kind word:)

Sue

Syd's picture
Syd

Would love to try one of those, Sue.  I love the taste of cardamom. Great, bake! Did you glaze them? :)

Syd

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

Yes, I glazed the buns...with my homemade apricot jam mixed with an equal amount of water. I think jam glaze gives shiner finish and some lovely flavour.

Sue

teketeke's picture
teketeke

Crushing cardamom by hand will be a great kick to your chocolate hot buns, Sue.  I am glad that you ban bake!!! :)  I hope that yours will be fixed very soon.

Best wishes,

Akiko

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

Cardamom indeed gives a good kick to the bun. It's a very interesting flavour, sort of citrusy and minty at the same time. The aroma was sensational.

I'm still using my partner's oven, which is great for bread and all, but not for macaron (I still need to learn and adjust to different heat source and temperature with this oven for macarons, they're very tempermental).

Cheers,

Sue 

kim's picture
kim

Hi Sue,

I love cardamom so much that I even finely ground them to put in my cinnamon bread. I like your chocolate and cardamom combination, I think I may try your HCB version for the coming Easter. I have the same mortar and pestle; they do good jobs on so many things. Happy Easter.

Kimmy

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

I never cooked/baked with cardamom until now, and totally fell in love with it. Its aroma and taste is very distinctive. I love your idea of cardamom in cinnamon bread too...will have to try that.

Mortar and pestle is great - did fantastic job with the grinding. We used that a bit with pesto, spices...etc

Happy Easter to you too.

Sue

kim's picture
kim

Hi sue,

I get addicted to cardamom because I went to India for my internship many years ago and I always had masala chai for breakfast and lunch. Cardamom always included in my masala chai. I think cardamom also goes very well with ginger. I think you will like Indian foods because they use cardamom quite often in their dishes. I love to prepare pesto or chili paste with my mortar and pestle.

Kimmy

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

You lived an interesting life....internship in India must have been exciting.

Is masala chai the same as Chai tea? I love Chai tea too. This drink has become popular in Australia about 5 years back, as Chai Latte.

Sue

mrfrost's picture
mrfrost

The pictures seem to make it appear that you may crush the whole, entire pod?

Is that the case, or do you just crush up the "dark stuff"(seeds?) inside the pods?

Thanks.

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

I took the brown seeds out of the pod and disgard the green shell.

I use the mortar and pestle to crush the pods, then took the shells off. And grind the brown seeds in mortar and pestle. I only use the brown seeds, not the shells.

Cheers,

Sue

mrfrost's picture
mrfrost

Thank you.

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hello Sue,
Wishing you a very Happy Easter and wanted to say that your flavor variation for your Hot Cross Buns sounds very interesting and delicious! Thanks for the reference to the book - I bet there's all kinds of great ideas there!
from breadsong

 

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

The book is indeed interesting. I still haven't got around reading it much. But I'm packing it for my holiday reading (is it sad to read sort of cookbook during holiday? But the book is quite an entertaining read).

Wishing a happy Easter too. Have a good one:)

Sue

Mebake's picture
Mebake

Great looking Buns, Sue! Delicious, YUM!

 

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

:)

Sue