hot 'n cross

Ahhh Easter. One of my favouritest times of year. Sunshine, bunnies, chocolate, lambs, daffodils, chicks... The scent of Spring and good times to come. Happy memories of Easter egg hunts and the beautiful smell of flowering currant - my Mum would cut branches of the stuff from our front garden and put it in a big vase on the kitchen table with lots of cute painted egg decorations hanging from it, like an Easter-ish Christmas tree! It's something I'll always remember, and this year I'm taking my own branches back from the parents for my own place. Irises are also in bloom around Easter - my all time favourite flowers. I took these photos of irises when I was in France, absolutely gorgeous:

It used to be all about the chocolate eggs for me back in the day - Creme and Mini Eggs winning pole position in the greed stakes. However these days I much prefer the bread and cake based yumminess. I think it's the egg overload I see in the shops in the runup to Easter that well and truly put me off. I just hate the thoughtless, mass produced eggs that line the supermarket shelves (months in advance) with a passion. People bulk buying five for a fiver. Yuk! Hop on the Eurostar and head across the border to France, where you can pick up beautifully sculpted and wrapped, quality chocolate treats for hardly anything. Check my last post for a glimpse of the beauty within those chocolateries. Or failing that, pick and choose your Easter goodies carefully from quality purveyors - I just think if you're going to buy an egg for someone it should be something special, not something tossed into the trolley last min. However, this doesn't mean splashing out on a £45 affair from Claridge's. That to me is totally obscene. For that amount I would rather have a nice Diptyque vanilla candle or a Philosophy gift set plus a bag of Mini Eggs! You shouldn't need to spend much to get a decent chocolate egg or figurine - Hotel Chocolat or even M&S and Waitrose usually stock other more unusual treats which are so much nicer to receive than an ugly KitKat Chunky monstrosity sitting scowling in it's muggy mug...
I love Easter treats like homemade Simnel cake, or saffron Easter battenburg. This year I made hot cross buns - I just chucked mixed spice, lemon zest, mixed currants, sultanas and raisins together with strong white bread flour, a bit of yeast, butter, an egg and tepid milk. It came together very easily into a lovely dough, and I then worked in the mixed fruit. The only time consuming part was the proving (rising) which took around 2 hours in 3 stages. The dough went in my airing cupboard for 30 mins, I then knocked it back (punched it to disperse the air bubbles inside) and returned to le cupboard for another 40 mins, divided into 12 buns and back in the airer for a final 40 mins.

 I piped the crosses on with an icing bag using a paste of flour and water. Tip: make this paste about the consistency of icing and leave it to set on the buns slightly before putting them in the oven to bake, or else the crosses run out as the bread warms up.
The lil hot cross buns turned out beautifully, more substantial than supermarket ones, and with a light golden syrup glaze they looked very pretty too. Result! Maybe next time I'll try adding in cranberries or different fruits to give a twist on the original...

And I'm so lucky, I even have my own Easter lamb - here he is, wolf in sheep's clothing?! Cute.

up!

lamby