The Fresh Loaf

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Hot cross bun help

MJ Sourdough's picture
MJ Sourdough

Hot cross bun help

Fresh loafers

Just need some help with my 100% sourdough hot cross buns. Particularly with regards to the crossing paste.

I do not score the buns because just priory to baking I add a sweet crossing paste. I let the buns proof longer (so the oven spring does not break the surface of the buns). Then i add the crossing paste, just before putting them in the oven (with steam), but they still seem to break through along the lines of the crossing paste. I have attached some pictures for a better idea of what i mean, as i think I am rambling at this point.

any helpful comments/suggestions/tips?

Thanks

MJ Sourdough

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

when you put the crosses on the buns.  I like t bake then at 350 F to 375 F with egg glaze and steam so the high heat isn't likely to make them really puff up.  I also like to to put the crosses on when the balls are shaped so that the crosses and balls proof together and hang together.

\Happy Baking  

MJ Sourdough's picture
MJ Sourdough

Thanks.. i think i will try and incorporate your ideas - bake at a lower temperature, add and egg glaze, and put crosses on the buns right after they are shaped so the balls and crosses all proof together.

Thanks again, this is why i love the FreshLoaf... really helpful. 

MJ Sourdough

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

would be anther mess to make and clean up.  I just take some of the poolish and make a white dough put of it with a bit of sugar, roll it out as thin pipes with the palms and put them on.,  Here is a post

3 Sprouted Grain Poolish Hot Cross Buns

 

PetraR's picture
PetraR

They do look very dark to me.

How did you make the paste for the cross.

What temperature was the oven?

A hot cross bun should be soft inside and out.

The paste is made with flour and water into a thick paste and piped on just before the buns go in the oven, just pipe over the top.

Preheated oven 220C or Fan 200C , middleshelf for 20 min.

After the bake,while they are still hot, you can glaze them with apricot jam, they have to be sticky:)

 

MJ Sourdough's picture
MJ Sourdough

I agree the crosses got to dark in the oven. I bake them at 500 Fahrenheit (260C) this was to hot, You are right i think i will reduce to 200/220C.

I got the crossing paste recipe from Jeffrey Hammelman's book called Bread (pg 267)

thanks for your comment

RoundhayBaker's picture
RoundhayBaker

After trying lots of artisanal HCB variants (sourdough, cold fermentation etc) - none of which met my kids'  expectations - I then reverted to a traditional recipe (from Elizabeth David - unmatched in her research). It worked well. I now pipe medium-stiff pastry gloop onto the buns (made with osmotolerant yeast) at the beginning of the final proof. The still-wet crosses expand with the dough and do not break. Also, I found adding the crosses at the last minute can deflate the dough. And scoring them opens them up too much. Traditionally, glazing is done with a simple syrup (extra spices optional) as the HCBs cool, so no need to egg wash. Hope this helps.

 

MJ Sourdough's picture
MJ Sourdough

Thanks for you comment. I think i will try and make my crossing paste more wet and add to the buns at the start of the final proof. Thanks again!

drogon's picture
drogon

Although the crosses don't seem to stand out much, I'm sure they still tasted yummy - and it's the thought that counts!

So I've baked & sold almost 400 HXBs this Easter season (no more!) I'm not an expert yet, but the last batch were definitely better than the first!

I use a fairly traditional recipe (flour, water, milk, fruit/peel, egg, butter, yeast) with about 1/4 the normal yeast then let it ferment in the cool overnight, scale/shape/prove - pipe on the crosses then bake. (and I've been pushing the steam button on the oven when they go in too)

My crosses are nothing more than flour & water plus a little bit of sugar. Mixed up to a smooth paste then into a piping bag and onto the buns. I've seen recipes using self-raising flour too, but I just used what was to hand (mostly plain old bread flour, but sometimes white spelt)

Glaze... Well it's a toss-up between a nice sticky glaze (e.g. traditional apricot or boiled honey/cream mix) or something else - the sticky ones are more yummy, but the down-side is that they are harder to go into the bags, so the not so sticky glaze is nothing more than an egg, sugar and milk - whisked up, then applied to the buns immediately they come out of the oven. That cooks the egg on the hot buns and leaves them nice and shiny. (but doesn't add to the yummyness of them)

Based on the feed-back - for next years buns, it will be more spice & no mixed-peel.

 

Some buns.. Until next year!

 

-Gordon

PetraR's picture
PetraR

Oh Gordon, they do look wonderful.

I think I shall give them a go this weekend.

I love hot cross buns.

In Germany we have * Stuetchen * they are made with raisins only and not the cross, but they remind me a lot of hot cross buns.

 

Love the little blistery texture on your buns too.

Have you seen Paul Hollywoods hot cross bun recipe?

I do quite like it, he shows how to make them in one of those Waitrose videos on youtube.

I like Paul Hollywood , when I started baking I got one of his books which had a section for baking sourdough bread:)

 

drogon's picture
drogon

Yes - I've seen PaulH's stuff. My recipe is based on his, but really, it's nothing special - a basic enriched bread dough - kilo of flour, with 2 eggs, about 580g 50/50 milk/water, sugar 75g, butter 75g with 300g fruit added. A dessert spoon of mixed spice and half cinnamon. I used 3g of dried yeast and let it ferment overnight in a cool place - bearing in-mind that it has eggs in it, however they do get cooked to 97C and they're from my own chickens.

In the morning, the mix is scaled, shaped then left on the trays to prove (about 2-2.5 hours), crossed and baked. I use scissors to trim the excess cross mix from them before bagging them for the shop.

The texture is a little denser than more commercial ones, but they seem to have gone down well - I got asked today why there were none in the shop - well Easters been & gone here...

Working on a new bun with some local aspects though...

-Gordon

Ps. One of PaulH's books (100 breads I think) has some typos in it - specified tablespoons of salt rather than teaspoons - caught me out once although I should have known better )-:

 

PetraR's picture
PetraR

Thank you for the recipe Gordon, I most certainly shall bake them over the weekend, I can eat them all year to be honest, there is something about hot cross buns. * drooling here *

100 Breads is not the book that I have, I tell you, I would not have noticed the error:)

You do have a micro bakery * is that the right word * where you bake in your home kitchen and sell your breads and buns and rolls?

 

drogon's picture
drogon

Yes - I started in my home kitchen, then recently had the utility room refurbished as a bakehouse/utility room for both myself and wifes businesses.

Nothing particularly hard about the commercial side - get the local food hygiene people in to check it, go on a Level 2 food hygiene & safety course, do some paperwork, and you can legally make stuff to sell. My last inspection was actually a "self-certification" - basically a few pages of questions and that was that as I'm classed as low-risk (which I was a bit miffed about as I actually wanted the sticker, but my food hygiene certificate is up for renewal so I'll ask them about it then).

I bake for 2 local shops and events - e.g. today I'm catering for a funeral of a friend & neighbour. 200 baked rolls, mini quiches, cheese straws and other stuff to go... the shop got slightly less bread than usual - 4 sourdough honey spelt and 2 large local sourdoughs... I'd normally have done another 3 or 4 small loaves, but didn't have time.

-Gordon

 

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

Funny about the peel though. My son said NO PEEL!  People these days often are not keen on peel!  so I made Hammelman's recipe and used a mixture of sultanas and current (just what was in pantry) and added cranberries instead of the peel.  I soaked all in warm water for about an hour.  For the spice I used the following mix which found here on TFL (Syd - Hot Cross Buns) and put a couple of teaspoons in.  I was lazy and gave the crosses a miss but with hindsight should have put them on. Feedback from all was really positive so this will be a keeper, loved the cranberries in it too.

Spice mix (made up a small scaled batch)

16 parts cinnamon 
8 parts coriander 
4 parts allspice 
2 parts ginger 
2 parts nutmeg 
1 part ground clove

 

MJ Sourdough's picture
MJ Sourdough

Thanks for your comments and insights... very helpful... you have some great looking buns! hahahah... I am assuming this joke has made its way around FreshLoaf

mcs's picture
mcs

This is my recipe for the crossing paste.  I pipe it on right before they go in the oven, then brush the buns with a simple syrup after they come out of the oven.

235g cake flour
200g water
100g softened butter
55g powdered sugar

Blend with a whisk or in a KitchenAid, then pipe onto the proofed and ready-for-oven buns.  The cake flour helps to keep the crosses looking whiter than regular flour.

-Mark

drogon's picture
drogon

Good looking buns there :-)

-Gordon

mcs's picture
mcs

Thanks drogon ;)

-Mark

RoundhayBaker's picture
RoundhayBaker

Any problem separating the crosses with a batch like this? It's one of the problems I've had and would appreciate any advice.

mcs's picture
mcs

Thanks for the compliment.  No there's not a problem with separating the crosses. Since the crosses are 'cakey', they just stick to the buns and pull apart where the buns separate. 

-Mark

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

i've ever seen Mark.  Well done. No wonder you are the trailer master baker (TMB) :-)