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Hot Cross Buns
1 cup scalded milk 1/4 cup sugar 2 tablespoons butter 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 yeast cake dissolved in 1/4 cup lukewarm water 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon 3 cups flour 1 egg 1/4 cup raisins stoned and quartered, or 1/4 cup currants Add butter, sugar, and salt to milk; when lukewarm, add dissolved yeast cake, flour, cinnamon, and egg well beaten; when thoroughly mixed, add raisins, cover, and let rise over night. In morning, shape in forms of large biscuits, place in pan one inch apart, let rise, brush over with beaten egg, and bake twenty minutes; cool, and with ornamental frosting make a cross on top of each bun.
A straightforward overnight sweet dough. The original omits the oven temperature, which is the one thing you must supply.
- Oven temperatureThe original gives none. Bake at 375-400F for the twenty minutes specified.
- Yeast cakeA compressed yeast cake of this period ran in the region of half to two-thirds of an ounce, so half a cake is on the order of a teaspoon of active dry or instant yeast. Dissolve active dry in the quarter cup of warm water as written; instant can go in with the flour.
- Scalded milkScalding was standard with raw milk, usually explained as deactivating milk proteins that weaken dough. With pasteurised milk you only need it warm enough to melt the butter, then cooled to lukewarm before the yeast goes in.
- Stoned raisinsMuch of the raisin supply at this date was still seeded, hence "stoned and quartered." Modern seedless raisins or currants can go in whole.
- The overnight riseA full room-temperature night is a long ferment for an enriched dough. If your kitchen is warm, refrigerate the covered bowl after an hour on the counter and bring it back to room temperature in the morning.
- Shaping"Forms of large biscuits" suggests rounds of roughly two inches. Placed one inch apart they will touch as they rise, which keeps the sides soft.
- Ornamental frostingThis is a stiff royal-style icing of egg white and confectioners' sugar, piped or drawn on after the buns are fully cool. Applied warm it will slide off. Many modern versions pipe a flour-and-water paste cross before baking instead.
- YieldThree cups of flour gives about a dozen buns.