Happy Easter

Easter. My favourite holiday. The best food. The best weather.

I especially love hot cross buns, but good ones are hard to find. Then I decided, I’d make some. Isn’t this what holidays are all about? Good food and mouching about the kitchen drinking tea. Always up for a challenge, I wanted to try different recipes made with dried yeast and fresh.

I checked my trusty Twitter foodies for recipes. And lovely Liz came up with this.

@bizzylizzycooks: @stellaorbit There's one here http://t.co/rIO5fXf2bF but I cannot guarantee the recipe - Just finished a batch. Photo soon

March 30, 2013 1:59 pm via Tweetbot for iOSReplyRetweetFavorite

@stellaorbit

Stella Orbit

When I finally got to the markets, I could only get fresh yeast. Dried was all sold out. Undeterred, I made this recipe from Skye Gyngell’s Petersham Nurseries days.

Hot cross buns

My crosses could use some work, but the results were delicious. The dough was hard to work with and remained very sticky even after resting. For a scary 20 minutes, the dough didn’t move and I thought my kitchen was too cool for the yeast to work – despite my preparations of shutting doors and leaving the oven on low to warm up while I made the dough. But then suddenly, action stations and up it went. The finished product looked great and tasted delicious.

I had to eat another one, so I could take a photo of the inside. Lovely texture. There is not much resting time with this recipe, compared to some of the others, which is an advantage. Fresh yeast supplies available around Canberra from Fyshwick markets and IGAs – any deli worth it’s salt should keep it. Needs to fresh, it has a short shelf life. Enjoy.

one a penny, two a penny