Give them to your daughters.
Or give them to your sons.
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns!”

I was a 4 year old in kindergarten when I first learnt this song and I still sing it now each time I bake a batch of hot cross buns.

Hot cross buns are traditionally made in the upcoming weeks to Good Friday as part of the celebration for Easter and they seem to pop up at around the start of March in bakeries.

They are aromatically spicy, full of delicious dried fruit and finished off with a cross and a sweet glaze. The buns are very easy to make and are simply beautiful eaten warm and slathered with lots of butter.

Hot Cross Buns

Recipe adapted from ‘Modern Classics 2′ by Donna Hay.

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

½ cup caster sugar

1 ½ cups (375ml) lukewarm milk

4 ¼ cups plain flour, sifted

2 ½ teaspoons mixed spice

2 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

¼ cup mixed candied peel, finely chopped

50g butter, melted

1 egg

2 cups mixed dried fruit (sultanas, raisins, currants)

Crosses

¼ cup plain flour

2 tablespoons (40ml) water

Glaze

¼ cup caster sugar

30ml water

1 teaspoon powdered gelatine (dissolved in a 1 tablespoon of water)

1. Place the yeast, two teaspoons of the sugar and milk in a jug or bowl and set aside for 5 minutes. The mixture will start to foam, indicating the yeast is active.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, spices, sultanas, mixed peel and remaining sugar. Add the butter, egg and milky yeast mixture. Mix using a butter knife until a sticky dough forms.
3. Knead the dough on a well floured surface for 8 minutes or until elastic. Place in an oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel and allow to stand in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in size. Divide the dough into 12 pieces and roll into balls.
   
4. Grease a 23cm (9 inch) square cake tin and line with non-stick baking paper. Place the dough balls in the tin, cover with a tea towel and set aside for 30 minutes or until they rise.
5. Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F). For the crosses, combine the flour and water and using a piping bag, pipe crosses on the buns. Bake for 35 minutes or until well browned and springy to touch.
   
6. Prepare the glaze in the last 5 minutes of baking time. Place the sugar and water in a small saucepan over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Add the gelatine and cook for 1 minute.
7. Brush the warm glaze over the buns while they are hot.

With this post, you’re either going to love me or hate me. You will love me because I’m going to share a recipe for delicious brioche that you can make yourself, but then you will hate me because you’re going to take one look at the loooong list of steps, not even bother to attempt it, then have dreams of freshly homemade brioche for the rest of the week and you’ll simply salivate at the sheer thought of it. Yeah, you will! :)

I have never made brioche before because I am an extraordinarily lazy person and it all seemed like a big fuss which I could not be bothered with . I don’t know where the motivation came from, maybe my stomach, but last night I finally decided to give it a go and you know what? It is a huge fuss! There is a lot of preparation and so much waiting time, but it really is worth it. I actually didn’t think I’d have the patience to complete the recipe, or even type up the method as it’s so bloody long, but I’m glad I did. I really want you to try it for yourself as freshly baked brioche is simply magnificent!

Brioche is lovely eaten on its own, or toasted and spread with good butter and/or jam, but I thought I’d go the extra mile and make Twice-Baked Almond Brioche instead.

Brioche

Brioche recipe adapted from ‘Baking with Julia’ by Dorie Greenspan.

Sponge

2 teaspoons instant yeast

½ cup (125ml) full cream milk, just warm to the touch

½ cup (70g) plain flour

Dough

? cup (75g) caster sugar

1 ½ teaspoons salt

4 large eggs, beaten

3 cups (420g) plain flour

250g unsalted butter, at room temperature

1. For the sponge, place the yeast, milk and flour into the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer. Stir with a whisk until the yeast has dissolved. Cover the bowl with with a tea-towel and allow to rest for 30-40 minutes. During this resting time, it should bubble up.
2. Add the sugar, salt, eggs and flour to the sponge mix. Attach the dough hook to the mixer and mix on low speed until the ingredients come together and begins to resemble a dough. Cover again and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 15 minutes, scraping the hook and sides of the bowl as necessary. During this time, the dough should come together, wrap itself around the hook and ’slap’ the sides of the bowl. If after 8 to 10 minutes, you don’t have the audible ’slapping’ of the dough, add a tablespoon of flour at a time until it comes together.
3. With the mixer on low-medium speed, add the butter a few tablespoons at a time. The dough will look like a huge, lumpy mess, but persevere until all the butter is incorporated. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for 5 minutes or until you can hear the dough slapping the sides of the bowl again. The dough should be very shiny and elastic.
4. Transfer the dough to a large, oiled bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap and allow to rise and double in size. This will take around 2 to 2.5 hours.
5. Deflate the dough by folding it over itself several times using greased hands. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 6 to 24 hours in the fridge.

The dough is now ready to be used as you wish. To make two loaves, simply divide the dough, roll each portion out to the length of your tins, rest for an hour, egg wash them and bake until dark golden brown, but I will be using half the dough for Twice-Baked Almond Brioche and the other half later in the month for Sticky Cinnamon Pecan Buns (blog post will follow of course!). So, divide the dough in two and wrap one portion up tightly with plastic wrap and store it in the freezer.

With the other half, here we go…

Twice-Baked Almond Brioche

Instead of flaked almonds, you can use other nuts, or fresh fruit such as sliced strawberries, raspberries, pears, peaches or nectarines. Whatever!

The syrup and almond cream can be prepared a day in advance and stored in the refrigerator overnight.

Almond cream recipe adapted from ‘Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen’ by Clotilde Dusoulier.

½ quantity brioche dough

Syrup

½ cup (110g) caster sugar

¼ cup (60ml) water

¼ cup (60ml) orange juice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Almond cream

¼ cup caster sugar

½ cup ground almonds

¼ teaspoon salt

60g unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 large egg

flaked almonds, to sprinkle

icing sugar, to dust

1. Grease an 8-hole mini loaf pan, with each loaf measuring approximately 10 x 5 x 3 cm. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a rectangle slightly larger than the loaf pans. With the shorter end of the rectangle at the top, roll the dough into a tight coil. Turn in the ends to seal and place the rolled dough piece, seam side down into the pan.
2. Cover the pan with greased plastic wrap and let it rise at room temperature until doubled in size. This should take around an hour.
3. Whilst the loaves are resting, prepare the syrup. Combine the sugar, water, orange juice and vanilla extract in a small saucepan. Cook over moderate heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Allow the syrup to boil or a minute or two. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool completely.
4. Bake the loaves in a preheated oven set at 165°C for 15 to 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove the loaves from the pan and allow to cool on a wire rack.
5. For the almond cream, beat all the ingredients together until creamy.

Assembly

1. Preheat the oven to 165°C. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper.
2. Slice the tops off the brioche loaves so that they are level. Dip the brioche loaves into the syrup, ensuring that all sides are coated and moist. Spread two tablespoons of almond cream top of each loaf (you can lightly coat the sides of each loaf with the almond cream if you want, like I did, but the almond cream kind of all melted off onto the tray during baking, so there’s no point really). Sprinkle the loaves with the flaked almonds and place onto the prepared tray.
3. In the bottom third of the oven, bake the loaves for around 15 minutes or until golden brown.