The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Hot Cross Buns - 25 % Whole Grain

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Hot Cross Buns - 25 % Whole Grain

Baking with the 3 GMA’s again this week for Easter where hot cross buns and babka are on the list.  Good Friday is Hot Cross Bun Day and we decided to make an overnight poolish for the buns and a small 200 g YW dough for the crosses.  The crosses were only 12.5% whole grains trying to make them a shade lighter in color than the buns.

  

We did 2 sets of S&F’s over 40 minutes to incorporate the bourbon re-hydrated dried; apricots, cranberries and raisins and then let the dough ferment for 1 hour. 

 

For the crosses we mixed 100 g of YW with 100 g of AP and 25 G of WW with 20 g of sugar and let this ferment on the counter2 hours before the bun dough came together.  We later added 2 g of salt to the mix before final proof of the cross dough.

 

After the bulk ferment the dough was divided into (4) 150 g pieces and (6) roughly 70 pieces.  The larger pieces were further divided into 4 balls that were placed into ramekins to make clover leaf rolls and make natural seams for the crosses to be placed.  The 70 g rolls were placed into muffing tins where the crossed were laid on top.  

 

Final proofing of the rolls took 6 hours on the counter before the crosses were placed on top, egg wash applied and placed into the 450 F mini oven with one of Sylvia’s steaming cups.  We baked the muffin tins first followed by the ramekins as the 2nd batch.

After 8 minutes the steam came out and the mini oven was turned down to 425 F, convection this time.  The tins baked for 7 minutes more – 15 minutes total and the ramekins baked for an additional 3 minutes - 18 minutes total.

We juiced ¼ of a lemon onto ¼ C of powdered sugar, stirred and then micro waved the mix for 30 seconds to clarify the glaze.   The buns were un-molded onto a cooling rack as soon as they came out of the oven and then the glaze was brushed on the entire top of the buns while still hot.

These turned out well as a desert roll, warm with butter, and made fine French toast the next morning too.  They are worth the work to make them at least one day a year.

Formula

Poolish

Build 1

%

 

 

Pinch of AD Yeast

0

0.00%

 

 

AP

50

12.50%

 

 

Whole Wheat

50

12.50%

 

 

Water

100

25.00%

 

 

Total Starter

200

50.00%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poolish

 

%

 

 

Flour

100

25.00%

 

 

Water

100

25.00%

 

 

Hydration

100.00%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Levain % of Total

19.65%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dough Flour

 

%

 

 

Whole Wheat

40

10.00%

 

 

Whole spelt

40

10.00%

 

 

AP

320

80.00%

 

 

Dough Flour

400

100.00%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salt

8

2.00%

 

 

Water Weight Only + 1/3 C NFDMP

200

50.00%

 

 

Dough Hydration

50.00%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total Flour

500

 

 

 

Milk and water

300

 

 

 

T. Dough Hydration

60.00%

 

 

 

Whole Grain %

26.00%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hydration w/ Adds

68.70%

 

 

 

Total Weight

1,018

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add - Ins

 

%

 

 

Butter

30

7.50%

 

 

Sugar

30

7.50%

 

 

Snockered Fruits

100

25.00%

After Snockering Weight

Egg

50

12.50%

 

 

Total

210

52.50%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1/4 tsp each Cinnamon and Nutmeg

 

 

 

 

1/8 tsp each Ginger, Allspice

 

 

 

 

1/16 tsp Cloves

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

YW cross dough was 100 g of YW, 100 g of AP and 25 g of WW

 

 

with 20 g of sugar and 3 g of salt.

 

 

 

 

Comments

gmagmabaking2's picture
gmagmabaking2

Great job... and great to see all of those nice shiny HC buns... I like the idea of using a dough for the crosses... You are so clever... Great job. Now the Babka question is "loaf"? "ring?" or "seven sisters?"... decisions, decisions... or braided with died eggs??? Hmmm... we shall see..

 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Bundt Babka pan version?  I've got the overnight poolish and YW ready for this one even if we don't know what shape it will take exactly.  Might have to get fancy do with this one for Easter :-)

Glad you like the HC buns.  I like the dough crosses too!  Once the buns get the lemon glaze on them they shine right up and it dries crispy too.  I forgot to egg wash the buns before putting on the crosses so the white crosses didn't pop off a darker background as much as they should have - well, there is always next Easter to get them right :-)

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

Even though we ate about a dozen HCB yesterday and still going strong today.  I do say... your HCB look Superb!  Very nicely done, da!


I save one to hang in the kitchen and each year replace it.. supposed to be good luck and protection from home fires.  Fire season here is really scary and anything helps :)  You know the Irish and their superstitions :)

Sylvia 


dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

I'm so glad you liked the HCB's :-)  The mini oven and your steaming cups put blisters on anything!.  I like the glaze too.  it sets up like as a thin, hard, shiny shell.    I'm thinking I should replace the bow on my apprentices collar with one.  She is so hairy and hot in the summer here, I'm always worried she is going to spontaneously combust when she goes outside to do her business.   No sense it tempting fate - she thinks she is fireproof  and indestructible.  She might go crazy trying to get to it for a snack and that might be fun to watch.

Happy Easter Sylvia

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Those look real tasty.  Nice moist crumb you achieved.

Another winning formula.

Regards

Ian

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

This year we will do a yeast water and poolish one with Polish and Russian influences.  We sure liked the HCB's and they are going fast.  Amazing how good they were as French toast.  We sure like baking for any Holiday that comes along :-)  Always the best of everything there is in the kitchen at those times.

Glad ypu liked it Ian - looking forward to your next bake and hope that Varda's East coast get together was fun!

Alpana's picture
Alpana

Happy Easter! Amazing looking HCB. Love the idea of using dough seams for crosses. The spelt flour must have given it an interesting flavour. Steaming, in this case, seems to have worked better than egg glaze.

I made JH's recipe, which turned out quite tasty (if I go by empty cooling rack), but the HCB didn't look good enough to post. I added milk tangzhong in addition to sponge and I think it helped in texture. I had leftover tangzhong and I hate to waste food so I added sugar and lemon juice to it to make crosses over egg glaze. I should seriously work on my piping skills. Next year I will skip egg wash & use steam like you did.

Waiting to see your Babka.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

egg glaze before the crosses went on to help them pop off a darker background but forgot to do it.  So we egg glazed it all before going in the oven.  The blisters come from a long retard in combination with steaming.  Then we glazed it again with the lemon sugar glaze after it came out. We wanted to make sure these HCB;s got a double dipping when it came to glaze!  We try to get at least 25% whole grains in there some where if we can.

 Tang Zhong is a great way to get moistness and using it for crosses s another keeper.  I think you want to keep the egg wash though.

The babka turned out very nice!

Happy baking Alpana.

evonlim's picture
evonlim

happy Easter!! what an effort, those buns look delicious n tasty. thanks for sharing a great recipe as always.

evon

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

traditional but they sure were tasty and fun to make.  We really liked the hard shell the lemon sugar galze gave them. Shouldf help them keep longer if they werent gone.  Glad you liked them Evon.

Happy baking