Hot Cross Buns

 There is a song about this! Link! (Sorry it starts with an ad but you can click that away soon.)

James, growing up in England, has fond memories of "Hot Cross Buns". Every year on Good Friday somebody is sent to the bakery early in the morning and each family could enjoy one warm bun. Good Friday. And that is it.

Every year here in the USA we had trouble finding them to purchase. Sometimes we were lucky to find some. Sometimes we were very lucky and they were good. Sometimes effort were in vain. One year we were told (on Good Friday) that they had had them but stopped a few days ago because they were now "out of season". Oh yeah?

This year I decided to try to bake them myself. How difficult can it be? Ha-ha, we were watching lately the Great British Bake Off. I found Mary Berry's recipe HERE. Mary Berry is one of the stars in the show.

I printed it out and followed it faithfully. Mind you, good thing I had printed it some days ago because we had to order sultanas and mixed spice online. Halfway through I had a question and went online again. This time I watched the video (highly recommend it) and found I could have done it a little easier. 

But here is the result:

 

Well, it was fun. The dilemma: It was not Good Friday yet but we had to try them. Didn't we? 

As you can see it was a success. 

We both enjoyed the tasting but James decided there was a taste which he didn't know. We came to the conclusion that it must be the Mixed Spice which Mary Berry said she preferred. When we read the ingredients in it there were two which James usually doesn't care much about.

Well, this means I have to try making them again. I already have found the recipe from Paul Hollywood, the other star of the British show. He doesn't use this same spice. 

I do want to report though that I froze most of the other buns (in twos) and we have tried how they fare that way. Take them frozen and put them into the microwave for 30 second each = 1 minute for two. They came out like freshly baked. Super!