Choc Chip Hot Cross Buns. One a Penny, Two a Penny, Hot Cross Buns...A Great Recipe for Easter! HOP to it ;)

I know, I know. Easter is nearly two months away but I've been dying to use my Kitchenaid Mixer (recent Christmas gift, check the unboxing post here) and so I thought I'd give making hot cross buns a go! There's nothing wrong with being prepared right? I'm sure no one has ever made a complaint of hot cross buns coming too early :P

First time baking bread

I've always been concerned about baking bread because I live close to some very famous bakeries in Sydney and generally always eat hot, fresh bread so I'm afraid my standard for bread is pretty high and I hate to fail! HOWEVER I found a really, really simple way to make hot cross buns and I was pleasantly surprised at how good they turned out.

Check out the recipe below and you'll see what I mean!

Recipe and methodology

Step One

Ingredients Required:

• 637g of bread flour
• 50g of melted butter
• 1 egg
• 110g caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon yeast
• 1 3/4 cups of warm milk
• 2 tsp each of cinnamon and all spice

Step Two

Get that yeast activated with the milk, yeast and a bit of sugar.

Combine dry and wet ingredients in the bowl of a standing mixer

Step Three

Mix on Speed 2 (low-ish) for about 5 minutes until the dough pulls away from the bowl.

Let it rise until it's doubled in size (should be about an hour)

Step Four

Cut the dough into two logs and each log into 6 equal pieces

Make 12 balls (note these make HUGE buns so I might even make 24 smaller ones next time)

Let rise for another 30 minutes until it's about 75% bigger

Step Five

Prepare some extra flour and warm to make a paste and pipe onto the buns (I know I can improve my piping skills for next time!)

Into the oven for 20-25mins at 180c (pre heated).

Final Product

First time buns were a success!

YUMMMM! The smell was intoxicating and there was nothing more satisfying than breaking into a fresh hot cross bun straight from the oven. The chocolate was a little gooey and bread was soft, I could've easily devoured 2 of these but I resisted.

Luckily these buns were huge so one was actually quite filling but oh so delicious. I made choc chip as I don't like dried fruit or sultanas in my hot cross buns, but you could easily substitute with the traditional dried fruit inside.

Let me know what you guys think! Hope nobody minds I posted hot cross buns 2 months ahead of Easter :D

@phamished xx

ALL photos in this post are original and were taken by me on my Sony NEX-5N