As announced in the previous blog post, Challenge Number 2 on the 'Personal Baking Challenges 2013' list was Hot Cross Buns.
With Easter well behind us now, I will share with you my experience with two very different recipes. One is a yeast recipe. The other one a sourdough.
I'd say, forget about the cross and bake them all year long ;-)! In Holland we call that 'krentenbollen' (currant rolls). They're sold all year long. Not a cross in sight. Go for it!
So. I had never made hot cross buns before. And of course, with my rye sourdough starter 'The Beast' sitting on my kitchen top all day long being active but lazy, I was particularly interested in making both sourdough hot cross buns and yeast ones.
A search for recipes in books & magazines and on websites & blogs resulted in the following choice:
- The Guardian's Felicity Cloake's 'Perfect Hot Cross Buns'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/apr/21/cook-perfect-hot-cross-buns
I chose this one because Felicity had already compared several recipes (Nigella, Dan Lepard, etc) before putting this one together. I then changed a few things again to Felicity's recipe.
- 'Spiced Stout Sourdough Hot Cross Buns' from 'Lauren Bakes'
http://aslaurenbakes.wordpress.com/2013/03/14/spiced-stout-sourdough-hot-cross-buns/
This one appealed to me because it was an adapted recipe from Dan Lepard's Spiced Stout Buns - using a sourdough starter instead of yeast, the photos looked promising and I thought it was great to go with a recipe by another sourdough enthusiast.
SOURDOUGH
I baked them all on Maundy Thursday, but started the preparation process for the sourdough hot cross buns on Wednesday evening:
I mixed the sourdough starter, the Guinness and the spices with some of the flour the night before.
The fruit for the sourdough buns was soaked the night before as well.
On Thursday morning I added the other ingredients and formed the complete dough for the sourdough hot cross buns:
A lovely dough to make and very easy to handle I thought. Lots of resting and proofing of course. It's sourdough! Then shaped them into buns and let them proof one more time:
After a day and a bit of dedicated sourdough hot cross bun work, the finished product looked like this:
I chose to brush them with an apricot jam and hot water glaze rather than the sugar and water one. They looked absolutely amazing.......
More later about the taste test ;-)!
Whilst the sourdough version was rising for the first time on Thursday morning I made the dough for 'Felicity's 'Perfect hot cross buns'. Having read the recipe several times, I decided to change a few things:
- rather than just currants, I used half currants/half sultanas (just currants too dry)
- rather than putting the fruit in dry, I (hot)soaked them in blood orange juice
- I added a diced apple to get a bigger/more refreshing fruit flavour
- I brushed them with apricot jam & hot water rather than sugar & water
What I really liked about this recipe is the use of saffron as an ingredient. Brilliant! Fragrance, flavour, colour. A real special addition to an otherwise relatively 'plain' bun.
The big difference with this recipe compared to most other hot cross bun recipes is that it doesn't add a mix of different dry spices directly to the dough mixture. Instead, the spices are left to infuse in hot milk for an hour.
So. Off I went with the second recipe.
This dough didn't need as much rising and proofing as the sourdough because of the added (fresh) yeast so I was able to shape and bake these before the sourdough ones. In that respect these two recipes were good for using simultaneously ;-).
The shaped yeasty buns with their saffron yellow colour, at start of last proofing session...
.........just before they went into the oven.......
........and the finished products..............
TASTE
And now for the taste test............
That was an interesting one. And I can hear you thinking "comparing apples and pears"...
But, like with the Madeleines in the previous blog post, in the end you want a nice hot cross bun. That's really all there is to it!
In our 4-member family, the sourdough hot cross bun won it (3-1) against the yeasty bun. The child with the sweetest tooth preferred the yeast version. Although that might not be the reason why. We think that you do have to toast the sourdough hot cross buns to get optimum flavour.....but then........isn't that what we always do with our hot cross buns....?! Toast them and put some proper butter on them! Or even (slightly) salty butter is what I like ;-).
Felicity's yeast version became drier sooner. It felt like you had to eat them (or even finish them) the same day to really enjoy them.
My personal verdict is this:
Lauren's sourdough buns I am definitely making again. They were great! Felicity's yeast buns I will probably replace by another yeast version. However, I will keep her saffron idea in mind to add to whatever the list of ingredients will be in the new recipe I will try next time.
I hope that you have enjoyed reading about this challenge. Do have a go yourself! As I say, forget about the cross and bake them all year! Add nuts, or any other (dried) fruit you fancy. Make them with wholemeal grains and have a very healthy lunch box treat for your kids (or yourself for that matter!).
NEXT CHALLENGE
Next up will hopefully be the crumpets! My rings have now arrived and I am on my way with a white sourdough starter which I have called 'Lady Galadriel'. The Crumpet Challenge will most likely be a sourdough vs yeast comparison too. The wonderful Peter Cook from Price's bakery in Ludlow has been so kind to share the recipe of his sourdough version with me so that's definitely going to be one of the two.
I look forward to the next challenge. I hope you too!
All the best for now and keep baking,
Bee X
