HOT CROSS BUNS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21136, 19 March 1932, Page 7 (Supplement)

HOT CROSS BUNS.

' TWO EXCELLENT RECIPES. Ingredients for a nice batch of twenty bans: £ pint of milk, £ pint water, 2£lb. flour, soz. sugar, loz. yeast, 4oz. lard, margarine, or butter, 1 egg, 6oz. currants, loz. sultanas loz. lemon peel, cut fine (these last t.wo for those peoplo who like their buns very fruity), salt and apice to taste. "Rub the fat well into the flour. Dissolve the yeast in half the water at a temperature of 90deg. Dissolve the sugar in the remainder of the water and the milk, all at lOOdeg. Add the egg well beaten and the fruit and mix into a good clear dough. Stand for one hour. Then knead welf and stand for thirty minutes. Scalo off into portions, cut the cross with a clean knife, and proof for a further twenty minutes before .baking. Take of flour, loz. of compressed yeast, loz, of mixed spice, three gills of milk, each of currants or sultanas, butter, and castor sugar, 2oz. of mixed peel, two eggs. Sieve together |lb. of flour, the spice, and a pinch of bait. Put the yeast in a small basin with a teaspoonful of castor sugar, and mix together until they are liquid. Make the milk just lukewarm, then pour it on to the yeast, mixing well together. Make a well in the flour, and strain the milk gradually into it, mixing smoothly with a wooden spoon. Cover the basin with a piece of paper, and put it to stand in a warm place till the top is covered with bubbles. Put the rest of the flour in a large basin and rub the butter lightly into it. Clean and stalk the fruit, chop the peel, then add the fruit, peel, and sugar to the flour. When the " sponge " in the other basin is ready, add the dry ingredients, beating them in with the hand; at the same time .add gradually the beaten eggs. Continue beating until you can pull the lump of dough out of the basin, leaving it quite clean. Cover the basin again, and place it in the warmth until the surface of the dough is covered with cracks. It will take about one hour and a half. Shape the mixture into round balls and place them a good distance apart on a greased tin. Make the shape of a cross on top of each w r ith the back of a knife. Place the tins in a warm placo for about twenty minutes, or until the buns are half as large again as they were when they were put on the tins. "Bake in a quick oven for about half an hour. N.B. —If liked, .fruit and peel may be omitted, or more spice added.