March 30, 2024 - 4:14am
Big Buns
My annual batch of hot cross buns turned out pretty big this year.
The SAF Gold is still working well!
Lance
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My annual batch of hot cross buns turned out pretty big this year.
The SAF Gold is still working well!
Lance
They look perfect Lance. Light and flavoursome I'm sure.
Happy Easter!
Michael
If I look back at pictures of the Hot X buns I made in 2019, they look rather amateurish; I think it shows how you can improve products by recipe and skills development.
Easier of course for a professional baker who is making raised goods day in day out.
Lance
These hot x buns look lovely. Exactly like I would have like to to have made but never managed...
In general, I have never had much joy with enriched sweet doughs so far.
I am sure there are loads of recipes on the site here, but was wondering if you would mind sharing the one you used for these.
Yes, I'm happy to share. It's a moderately complicated recipe, so will put most people off....
Recipe here in bread log format.
One "secret" is an old Bakers trick, which I only read about recently; when you get the tray of cooked buns out of the oven you immediately bash the tray down once on a wooden bench or thick board. It is meant to "set" the buns, so they don't drop back. I always do it now, so I don't have a with and without bash comparison!
Lance
Many thanks for sharing Lance. Very comprehensive and very reassuring. I wish I had one more day of easter holidays to try it out. I'll try at the first opportunity and report back.
You're welcome! Yes, do let us know how you get on.
Lance
Lance, I have baked two loaves from the same dough, where one pan was whacked when it came out of the oven, the other one not. If there was any difference between the loaves, I put it down to different types of pans, and/or different amounts of dough. Who knows, but now I'm leery about NOT whacking the pan.
I have a lot of trouble with "keyholing" of panned loaves and this rapping is supposed to prevent that. It doesn't, but the theory is steam/air is released suddenly, instead of slowly dissipating and pulling the loaf in as it goes. I don't know about "setting" buns. What does that mean? Cookie and brownie pans are dropped to make the batter settle (in the case of cookies producing a crisper product; in the case of brownies, a chewier less cakey one), but this is done during baking and seems to be the opposite effect of what we want.
I haven't done a proper test of whacking vs non-whacking, but I'd sure like to find out if it does have any effect.
I picked the tip up from Wayne Caddy: "When baked immediately BANG the tray on a worksurface just once and this will set the volume of the bun and stop it dropping back.... CRAZY but this works".
His full list of 5 hot X bun tips here: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cqm5oLBNwfT/
The other tips make sense (though I don't necessarily use them); banging the tray seems counter-intuitive!
Lance
Bang on Lance! The banging and the recipe looks like a winner. Your buns got me off the sidelines! I may try it next year. I have been using Hamelman’s recipe the past few years. It’s a little OTT for me but the family demands them at Easter. However making them only once a year I haven’t quite mastered them yet. I botched making the candied orange peel a little bit this time but the leftover simple syrup brushed on out of the oven is a nice touch.
My style is perhaps naturally rustic
Happy Easter Baking
Don
Thanks Don; nothing wrong with rustic!
I've used Hamelman's recipe a couple of times in the past, before I worked out my own. It worked well enough, but I think his crossing paste is unnecessarily complicated.
So we need to add to the American English / UK English dictionary: whack (US) = bash (UK)......
Lance