Honey Lady Hungarian Hot Cross Buns

Growing up in a Hungarian family in Australia meant that there were a lot of things that everyone else seemed to eat that we did not... pavlova, scones, corned beef, vegemite, tinned pineapple and white bread.... but mind you there were plenty of things we ate that other people did not... like chicken feet and black corn!!

I think I was well into my 20's before I had a hot cross bun. For Easter we would eat meats and vegetables all done Hungarian...


I'm pretty sure we had fish on Good Friday but really every time we sat down at the table was a feast so apart from some special cakes there was not a huge difference for celebratory meals... except the number of people eating with us!

My mum made a lot of sweet yeast based dishes and this recipe is taking the base of a lemon cottage cheese filled bun and making it into a Hot Cross Bun... tricky....


So this how I make my version of these Easter favourites....

Honey Lady's Hungarian Hot Cross Buns

You will need…

4 cups Strong Plain Flour

2 eggs
300ml milk
2 x8g yeast packets
1 tablespoon sugar
4 tablespoon Honey Lady Chai Honey
50g butter plus extra to grease pan
zest of one orange

1/2 cup currants

To Make…

Combine milk, butter and honey and dissolve over low heat. Only allow to get luke warm then take off heat.

Activate yeast with sugar and small amount of warm water.

Add flour on top of yeast. Make a well in the top of the flour and loosely combine in the eggs making sure they do not touch the yeast. Add milk honey butter mix to flour and combine thoroughly.

 

On a floured board knead the dough for 5- 10 minutes until elastic.

With a wet tea towel on top, rest dough in warm place and allow the dough to double in size (30-40mins)

If you are wanting to have these for Easter morning you can at this point put the dough in the fridge to halt the process until morning.

Punch down dough and kneed for 5 - 10 mins and then add orange zest and currants.

Shape into buns with about an 8cm diameter and place in a butter greased tray. Allow to double in size again (20 mins)

Brush buns with milk and place in 190c oven and bake until golden brown (about 15-20 mins)

Eat warm with lashings of butter and honey, cups of tea or mugs of coffee

If you are wanting to make a traditional X on the top of each bun, make a water and icing sugar paste and pipe on the X before baking.

Enjoy and Happy Easter,

yours

Honey Lady