Hot cross buns

2 teaspoons yeast

1 ¼ cup warmed milk

¼ cup caster sugar

4 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon mixed spice

½ teaspoon ground ginger, nutmeg, cardamom (not essentials but just adds a bit more spice)

60 butter, melted

2 eggs

1 ½ cups dried fruit

In a bowl, whisk together the yeast, milk and sugar.

Cover and put in a warm, draught-free place for about 10 minutes until the yeast has frothed. If it hasn’t foamed at all, the yeast is dead and you’ll have to start again.

In a big bowl, mix together the flour and spices. Add in the yeast mixture, eggs and butter and combine well.

If it’s too sticky, you’ll need to add more flour as you go.

Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead well, until the dough is a nice smooth consistency.

Put into a lightly greased bowl and cover, place in a draught-free place for about 45 minutes.

Mix in the dried fruit – there is no simple way to do this, but just slowly knead it through in a few batches until it’s all combined in.

Lightly grease a baking tray, and line with baking paper.

Divide the mixture into about 18 pieces, rolling each into a ball. It might make slightly more or less depending on how big you want them.

Line the balls up in the baking tray, placing them next to each other but not mushing them together. When they cook, they’re going to rise but they don’t expand too much, and they will break away from each other easily when cooked.

If there is a big gap of unfilled space on the tray, sometimes I put some rolled up foil in next to the end row just to hold it in place, but this isn’t entirely necessary.

Leave the buns for about 10 minutes in the tray.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Please note there are a lot of recipes for making the white crosses – I am terrible, or unlucky, at this part, I don’t know what I have been doing wrong. So far the best way seems to be combining ¼ cup self-raising flour with a couple of teaspoons of water to make a thick paste, and then piping the crosses onto the buns in the rows. 

Pipe the crosses onto the buns just before they go into the oven.

Cook the hot cross buns for about half an hour, or until golden brown. 

About five minutes before they’re due to come out of the oven, make a quick glaze.

I mix about 2 teaspoons of gelatine with 4 tablespoons of sugar and a few teaspoons of hot water, bring it to the boil.

You could also use an apricot jam, it is just as good as a glaze, it just depends on what you have available to use. You just want to brush it over the buns as soon as they come out of the oven.

Leave them to cool in the tray for about 10 minutes before popping them onto a wire rack.