Hot Cross Buns for Easter 2023

Today I made Hot Cross Buns to freeze for Easter morning. We're visiting Grandpa, so I needed to make these ahead of time. I used this recipe from Sally's Bake Blog. I've made them before but I can't remember how it went. This time, however, I had a lot of trouble with the dough sticking to the sides of the mixer no matter how much extra flour I added. I have a feeling it could have been because I didn't follow the recipe to the letter. It calls for 3.5 cups of flour, but somehow I skipped looking at the amount in the ingredients, only looked at the directions, and started beating 2 cups of flour with a dough hook instead of with the paddle attachment. By the time I came to my senses, switched attachments, and put in all the flour needed, perhaps the die was cast.  I was late to a French lesson, to boot.  So I dumped the mess out on the counter, added a lot of bench flour, and somehow made a dough.  They baked up fine and I tried one after dinner and it was delicious. So, hopefully all's well that ends well! I didn't make the flour cross, because when I've made it in the past it was hard and chewy. My plan for Sunday is to thaw out 6 buns, pipe a cross made of thick glaze, and wish everyone a happy Easter.  We'll have several buns left in the freezer to enjoy whenever the fancy strikes us.












Hot cross buns on Easter morning.



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