Gourmet Gifting, “Faux” Foie Gras

Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it. – Benjamin Franklin

Should have bought 6 jars...

December has finally arrived, and with it the hurly burly of the Christmas season. We made the mistake of trying to go to the mall on Friday – Black Friday. We got a taste of what is to come. It wasn’t pretty.

Mmmmm… 1 cup of butter.

From now on it won’t be fit to go to any of the malls or consumer business parks, unless you want to spend the day in traffic and then in checkout line-ups. And what is the result? Buying “tat” that people don’t want or need. That’s why making edible gifts make so much sense.

This month I’ll be posting ideas on presents from the heart, instead of from the wallet. I post every second day, so from now until Christmas there will be 12. My own 12 Days of Christmas.

First up, faux foie gras. Foie gras (French for "fat liver") is the liver of a duck or goose that has been purposefully fattened. For many people this is a non-starter because there is concern that it harms the birds. 

Whipped into a mousse.

On an episode of Diary of a Foodie, a TV show by the now defunct Gourmet magazine, we were taken to a French foie gras farm where the geese seemed to be treated quite well, and were free-range. They were force-fed, but didn’t seem to be harmed in any way or caused much, if anything, in the way of distress.

There are good farmers and bad farmers everywhere. I would imagine, like everything else, the truth about force feeding lies somewhere between. The extremes of either end of an ethical question should equally be mistrusted.

So what if you could avoid the issue all together? No one cares about chickens, right? That's what this recipe uses – chicken livers. The result is a pâté that is very, very reminiscent of foie gras without any of the guilt. It is smooth, creamy, rich and delicious.

I based mine on the main recipe from the Diary of a Foodie episode I spoke of above, but made some alterations.

To pretty up as a gift I purchased four cage-top jars at a “dollar store” at about $1.50 each. I think they were about 1/2 cup in size. The cage-tops make them look very special.

In hindsight I should have purchased more jars, or bigger ones, because by the time they’re empty you will be looking for more. I filled four, plus two custard ramekins.

This was a real hit last year when I made it. All it needed was a crusty baguette. That would be another great post for this month. It also would go quite nicely with my previous post on how to make brioche using your mixer.

These pots-de-delight are sealed with gélee, but you may want to hold off making them until a week before Christmas. Better safe than sorry!

The mousse is baked using a water bath.

“Faux” Foie Gras

Adapted from Diary of a Foodie, Season 1: Contraband Cuisine

Prep: 45 min  |  Total time: 3 hours (includes cooling)

Special: 6 x 125 ml cage-top jars

For the mousse

1 cup finely chopped onion

1 cup butter

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tbsp truffle oil (optional)

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 lb chicken livers, trimmed of visible fat*

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp cracked black pepper, plus more for in gelée

For the gelée

1 cup chicken stock

2 tsp unflavoured gelatin

2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp hot sauce

Preheat the oven to 300°F. Bring a kettle of water to a boil.

To make the mousse, melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan. Add the onion and garlic and sauté on medium low until the onion is translucent, about 8 minutes. Add the truffle oil and remaining butter. Stir until the butter melts.

Clean any sinews and fat from the chicken livers. Place the onion mixture and cream in a food processor. Process until the mixture is smooth.

With the motor running drop the livers in, one at a time. Add the salt and pepper and process until very smooth. The mixture will be very light in texture. Do not taste it. It’s raw liver!

The mousse sets up more. This was taken before fully cooled.

Arrange the mousse baking dishes in a 9”x13” dish. Fill each small dish to about 1/4” from the top with the mousse mixture. Wrap the top of each one with foil and fill the 9x13 with water to about halfway up the sides of the mousse containers.

Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. The mousse will be set through to the centre.

Remove from the water bath and let cool for at least 2 hours on the counter. Once the mousse is cool, make the gelée.

Pour the chicken stock into a small saucepan. Sprinkle the gelatin on top of the stock and let soften for about one minute. Slowly heat the mixture to just below boiling, swirling to make sure the gelatin dissolves.

Remove from the heat, stir in the sugar and hot sauce. Sprinkle a generous amount of cracked black pepper (must be cracked, not ground) on top of each pâté. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of the gelée on top and let set.

Once the gelée sets, cover tightly and refrigerate.

To show the result I dipped in with a spoon before they were refrigerated. They will firm up more. This is really rich, delicious stuff. The truffle oil makes a world of difference.

* If you can find them, duck livers would make this even closer to real foie gras. I don't think you can get them here in Halifax.

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Make Brioche with your mixer!

But since you're asking me, I'll tell you my opinion: all cornbread is authentic, as long as it's good, hot, and made with love and fresh ingredients. – Jeremy Jackson 

The quote begs a very interesting question: what makes a recipe “authentic”? Is it ingredients, technique, location something is made? All are valid to argue in the positive and negative.

Consider how you get down from a hilltop. You can walk, roll, bike, run, sled, ski, etc. The end result is getting down the hill in one piece. How you get there is of no great concern, really. It's the end result.

The flour, sugar, yeast, salt and butter.

The same is true with making brioche. It has to be rich and buttery, with a moist, tender crumb. But it's a French classic – it must be difficult. As with all classic French recipes, there’s more fear and mystery surrounding how to  make them than is necessary.

But for a moment, let's talk original. As far as “authentic” goes, look no further than Julia Child. She uses a spatula and her hands. (Of course she would!) I would imagine that is exactly the way she was taught when she was studying cooking in France.

If you want to read how she does it, look here.

Interestingly, the method of choice nowadays is a mixer with a whisk and dough hook. Many fine dining magazines have published recipes that use that most useful kitchen tool. 

If it’s good enough for Fine Cooking magazine it's good enough for me... So I don’t feel that guilty in using my KitchenAid to help me out. Otherwise I would be in for a bit of a mess.

The "paste." before first long rise.

Before being baked, brioche is part dough, part paste, or “pâté de brioche.” Luckily my excursions in overnight raises have conditioned me for what to expect from an 8-hour bread rise. It’s substantially different than when first started.

A few sites lament about “fast” brioche recipes common nowadays where the flavour is not allowed to develop before baking. This also is solved by the overnight rise. The length of time lets “yeastiness” develop that 2-3 hours just doesn’t deliver.

I made this recipe because I was bored one night this week. If it failed all I would be out was a few cups of flour, some butter and eggs. No big deal.

That’s the good thing about baking. If it’s a flop you just throw it out. Luckily this was not. Any fear I may have had about making brioche has now completely evaporated. It’s no more difficult than any other bread.

This was delicious warm and plain, and the next morning toasted with butter. It can be used to make excellent French toast, or even sandwiches. The dough itself can be shaped into rolls, as lining for tarts, or rolled into croissants. They can then be broiled briefly with French pastry cream and almond slivers. Versatility at its finest!

So what’s stopping you from trying your hand at this? Nothing. I know you want to...

Settled in for 2nd rise. Dish is 8" wide x 5" high.

Brioche

Time: overnight, plus 3 hour rise |  Bake: 1 hour  |  yield 2 regular or 1 lg loaf

4 cups unbleached flour

1/4 cup white sugar

2-1/2 tsp yeast

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter

3 large eggs

1 cup milk

1/3 cup water

1 tbsp cream (for brushing)

Place the flour, sugar, yeast and salt in the bowl of your mixer. Using the whisk attachment, mix the dry ingredients together.

Cube the butter into 1/2” pieces. Add to the flour and whisk until the butter begins to break up. Then add the eggs all at once. Continue to whisk until the mixture looks granular, about 2 minutes. (see photo)

Switch the whisk for a dough hook. Then add the milk and water. Beat the dough until it comes together in a mass, but is very sticky. This will take a couple minutes. Remove the hook.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl so all the dough is together in one mass. Cover with plastic wrap and a towel. let rise overnight, or for 8 hours.

After the first rise, butter your hands and remove the dough to a board. Using a small amount of flour, knead briefly to make the dough smooth. It will still be very moist but will not stick.

If making two loaves, divide in two and place in two well buttered loaf pans, or two fluted “mousseline” moulds. (They have deep flutes and flare out on the sides.)

If using a circular baking dish (like I did), butter it well, line with parchment paper 1” up past the sides and butter the paper. Place the dough in the dish.

Let the dough rise again for 3 hours. It will almost triple in size. 

Preheat the oven to 400°F with a pan (with 1 cup of water in it) on the bottom rack. Brush the loaf (or loaves) with the cream.

Bake the small loaves for 30-35 minutes, or the large one for 1 hour. The loaves are done when they are well browned on top and sound hollow when tapped. 

Note: the large loaf can be tricky because of its size and the dough moisture content. The very centre has a tendency to cook very slowly. That’s why the time is twice that f the smaller loaves.

Remove from the oven and the pans, and let cool.

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Honey & Steel Cut Oat Bread

Sweater, n.: garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly. – Ambrose Bierce 

The smell is amazing, and has filled the kitchen.

I had to get a sweater out of the closet. The day I made this it was cold and dreary. The rain moved in around noon and pretty much made doing anything outside a write-off.

It’s not so much the rain. I’m not made of sugar (I won’t melt)... It’s the single digit temperatures that moved in with it that was really depressing. In the middle of the afternoon!

The oats, after about 30 pulses, or thereabouts.

Brrrrr. I even moved the plants on the back deck into the sun porch. Just in case. There’s some important ones out there, plants that remind me of special times in my life. 

Since I couldn’t pick up all the fallen apples (dodged a bullet there) I moved my activities into the kitchen. To the bread bowl. 

I’m getting back into bread now that turning on the oven doesn’t over-heat the house. In fact it actually drove off the chill in the air. Bonus.

This bread is pretty straightforward. It’s a low-knead bread with the addition of some healthy steel cut oats and honey. I’m sure it will make some very fine sandwiches through the week.

If you like oatmeal bread you might want to give this a try. This recipe’s different from most in two respects. First, it substitutes honey for oatmeal so it’s a light coloured loaf, and the amount is half as much as usual, so it’s not overly sweet.

It is now cooling on the counter, crackling away as it cools. Ahh, the sounds of fall... at least some of them aren’t bad.

Honey & Steel Cut Oat Bread

Prep: 20 min  |  Rises: 3 hours  |  Bake: 40 min

2 cups water, at 110°F

1 tbsp yeast

2 tbsp honey

1-1/2 cups steel cup oats, see recipe

3-1/2 cups unbleached white flour

1 tsp salt

Proof the yeast in the warm water and honey until bubbly, about 10-12 minutes.

Pulse the steel cut oats un a food processor until broken up but not ground to a flour consistency. You want pieces.

Add the oats, white flour and salt. Bring together with a spoon and then your hands. The dough will be sticky. Knead on the counter. Add only enough flour to make it slightly less sticky – not entirely “un-sticky.”

Place the dough back in the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and then a towel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 2 hours.

Generously butter a 5” x 9” loaf pan. Set aside.

Punch down, knead briefly, shape into a log and place in the buttered pan. Let rise until doubled again, about 1 hour. For the last 20 minutes preheat the oven to 425°F with a pan of water on the bottom rack.

Bake the loaf for 10 minutes with the water  bath. Remove it and then bake for an additional 30 minutes.

The loaf is done when it is nicely browned and sounds hollow when tapped on top with your fingers.

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Sweet Flax Seed Bread

A Book of Verses underneath the Bough, A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread—and Thou, Beside me singing in the Wilderness—Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow! – Edward Fitzgerald

Had a very “large” day with my husband yesterday. “Large” in Nova Scotia means a wonderful day full of fun activities. We left the house yesterday at 11am and didn’t get back until 10pm and 350 km later.

We’re in the middle of Queens County, NS. So what can you get up to down this end of the province? Quite a lot actually, and for us it included three activities we had never done before.

This hemlock isn't 300 years old, but it was cool.

We first struck out to Kejimkujik National Park. We wanted to see some trees. Old growth hemlock, to be exact – some in excess of 300 years old. Adult day passes are $5.80 – do whatever you want all day until midnight. Our Bouvier Henry was free.

The old growth hemlock walk is 5km in total, through some beautiful undisturbed forested area, all well marked and interpreted. We were in the middle of nowhere, so good signage is a comfort. The boardwalk through the old hemlocks was stunning. The 5 km was a snap – and we don’t really walk all that much.

From there we headed for Digby and the Tiverton Ferry to Long Island. We were on a mission to see the scenic balancing rock, a 20 foot high piece of basalt rock precariously balanced on an outcropping on the shore. It’s been that way for 200 million years, or thereabouts...

It was even fun to take the ferry to Long Island, although it was only a 5 minute quarter mile trip. The ferry ride was $5.50 round trip. It runs every hour, 24 hours a day.

Balancing rock.

If you do want to see it, be aware there’s about 235 steps down to the water. Take your time. Henry was able to manage them. It’s worth it.

Backtracking, we walked the Digby waterfront. It was charming and way more than I expected. The people are friendly – even the tourists! My husband Mike got some nice shots of the famous Digby fishing fleet. A stunning, blue sky day.

Dinner was even a revelation. I had a club house sandwich at Irving’s Big Stop in Digby, but instead of turkey it had lobster! Lots of lobster. I’m making that at home. Best lobster "sandwich" I ever had.

For such a full day you would think that we would have started earlier. That’s my fault. Before we left I had to make bread for the week. 

There’s nothing like starting your day’s adventures with warm, fresh bread in your belly.

I’m so lucky. Good food, fantastic adventures, a wonderful dog (who probably regrets all the walking...) and a husband that is my heart’s twin. Can life get better?

Sweet Flax Seed Bread

Prep, including rises: 3 hrs  |  Bake: 35 min  |  Yield 1 loaf

2 cups water, 110°F

1 tbsp yeast

1 cup red fife or whole wheat flour

4-5 cups unbleached flour

1/3 cup fancy molasses

1/2 cup flax seeds

1 tsp salt

Proof the yeast in the warm water for 10 minutes until bubbly.

Before and after rising – doubled in bulk.

Mix in the red fife, 4 cups of the unbleached flour, molasses, flax seeds and salt. Bring together and try to knead on the counter. Only add enough of the remaining flour to make a dough that is still just slightly sticky.

Knead for 5 minutes. Oil a bowl, plop in the dough and let rise until doubled – between 1.5 and 2 hours. (Wrap the bowl in plastic wrap and then place a towel on top.)

Punch the dough down, roll into a log by folding it over and place in a well oiled 9” x 5” bread pan to rise again. Second rise should only take between 1/2 and 3/4 hour.

Preheat the oven to 400°F with a pan of water on the bottom rack to hydrate the oven.

Bake the oven for 10 minutes, remove the water and then bake for an additional 25 minutes. The loaf is done when it is nicely browned and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped with your fingers on top.

Let cool slightly, remove from the pan and then let cool until you can’t wait to try it!

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Blueberry & Lemon Pound Cake

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. – Winston Churchill 

This does NOT look like failure.

I’ve been to my secret blueberry patch again. It seems that they’re just about peak right now, even though I first went up to pick some a month ago. That’s a long time for blueberries to hang around.

It took me no time at all to gather 4 cups of the wondrous dark blue darlings. But now I have a slight problem. What should I do with them? It’s easy enough to put them in a bowl with cream and sugar, but what’s interesting about that? Not much, I dare say – although delicious.

I have had occasion to doubt my abilities with the oven lately. I’ve made a couple cakes that were absolute flops. As you can imagine, they ended up in the compost as opposed to our stomach. I used to be able to bake...

Whatever the reason for failure—haste, inaccurate temperature, insanity—I felt the need to “prove” I could do it, at least to myself. Lack of confidence is a terrible thing. For me it’s deadly. I do the cooking.

So always one to get back onto the horse that threw me, I launched myself into a blueberry cake. To mitigate my chance of failure I pulled out an old friend: the Quatre quarts recipe from Larousse gastronomique, the bible of all things food.

Quatre quarts (pound cake) is an English invention of the 1700s. It consists of equal measures of flour, sugar, eggs and butter. In English recipes each weighed a pound. As you can imagine, this sort of recipe was a godsend to illiterate masses who couldn’t read a cookbook even if they had one. Easy to remember, easy to do.

The leavening in a classic pound cake is only air whipped
into the eggs and sugar.

The leavening was/is accomplished by beating the heck out of the sugar and eggs until you have a very creamy, very light coloured and fluffy mass. Not everyone had access to baking powder or soda in the 1700s, or their forerunner potash.

This really is “the” classic cake as far as I’m concerned. It has just a few, readily available ingredients and is easy to put together. You can easily tell when your sugar and eggs are ready for the flour and butter.

But I had to change the original recipe from a straight vanilla cake to blueberry and lemon. Somehow I succeeded without bollocks-ing it up. I did add some baking powder to help. Soda and powder act in acidic batters to help rising. Lemon juice = acidic, so it seemed right to do. 

The result? An ever-so-slightly lemony cake studded evenly with beautiful, sweet wild blueberries. The classic “crack” down the centre is just a aesthetic bonus.

I’m vindicated. I can bake (again)! But I still have well over 2 cups of blueberries...and will be going back for more.

Blueberry & Lemon Pound Cake

Prep: 15 min  |  Cook: 1.25 hr to 1.5 hr  |  Yield: 1 loaf

1-1/2 cups wild blueberries*

2 tbsp flour

1 cup sugar

4 large eggs

2 cups flour

1 cup salted butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp baking powder

juice of 1/2 lemon

1 tbsp grated lemon rind

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Butter a 5x9 loaf pan and sprinkle with enough sugar to coat well. Toss the blueberries with the 2 tbsp of flour. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Cream the sugar and eggs together in a mixer. After about 5 minutes the mixture will get very light and fluffy.

Turning the mixer to low, incorporate 1 cup of flour followed by 1/2 cup butter, alternating again to include all of both. Then add the vanilla, baking powder, juice, rind and nutmeg and beat for a further minute. Fold the berries and any flour left in the bottom of the berry bowl into the batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and place in the hot oven.

Bake for 1 hour and then check for doneness. The cake is fully baked when it pulls away from the sides, has the characteristic bump down the centre with a crack in it and a cake tester (or toothpick) inserted in the centre of the crack comes out perfectly clean.

If in any doubt at all, bake the cake longer. (That was my downfall with my failures.)

Let cool slightly on the counter, then remove from the pan. Slice as you serve.

* Cook’s tip: chill the blueberries before tossing with the flour. Once you take them out of the refrigerator they will have a slight dampness that helps the flour stick.

Let the cake cool for about 10 minutes before removing from the pan.

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Questions? Comments? Derogatory remarks? Just ask! I’ll answer quickly and as best as I can. If you like this post feel free to share it. If you repost, please give me credit and a link back to this site.

Heritage Red Fife Bread

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions. – Dalai Lama 

I was watching an old episode of Jacques Pépin on Netflix a few nights ago. It was his “More Fast Food My Way” series. During the 21 minutes (commercials take 9) he makes several easy and fast dishes. Those PBS cooking shows never fail to make me happy.

Ready to rise. Looks like a mess, but fear not.

This particular episode he showed how to mix and bake bread right in a Dutch oven. I thought that was kind of clever. I could do that...

This is not Mr Pépin’s recipe at all. It is mine. I had bought some interesting flour a couple weeks ago at the Bulk Barn – red fife – and thought it was time to crack it open.

Red fife is prepared as a stone-milled whole wheat, which means that it has the usual endosperm that is found in white flour, but also the bran and germ. Those parts of the wheat have most of the fibre, B vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals.

It also is supposed to have a lower gluten content so may be better tolerated than refined flour for those with gluten sensitivity.

As soon as the water hit the flour I could tell it was a “whole wheat,” albeit a red whole wheat. I can also attest to the lower gluten. My bread didn’t rise as usual, but that’s fine. It made a soft and delicious loaf that tasted great still warm with butter.

One of the main claims to fame of red fife grain is its links to Canada’s European history. Here’s some info.

From Wikipedia:

Red Fife is a variety of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) that David Fife and family began to grow in 1842 In Peterborough Ontario. Legend goes that a friend of Mr. Fife collected a sample of seed from a ship in the Glasgow port. Red Fife was the first wheat to be named in Canada and many modern varieties of wheat owe their genetics to Red Fife.

After 8 hours.

The seed might have originated in Turkey, then moved across the Black Sea to the Ukraine where Mennonite farmers grew it, then seed was shipped to Glasgow, where a friend of David Fife's found it, sent a sample of seed to Fife in Ontario.

Mr. Fife grew out the seed, shared the seed with other farmers and called the wheat Red Fife because the kernels were red and his name was Fife.

Red Fife wheat is a living artifact that is part of Canada's living history, cultural and agricultural heritage.

Red Fife seed arrived in Canada when Canadian lands were being opened for producing wheat. Red Fife seed adapted to a great diversity of growing conditions across Canada. It was the baking and milling industry standard for 40 years from 1860-1900. Plant breeders around the world continue to use the genetics of Red Fife to make new varieties of wheats.

I’ve heard of “kettle breads” before of course. I like to think that mine is a resurrection of what our ancestors may have made when they were forging a new life in a new land.

This one's also autolyse, which means it sort of "self kneads" by rising slowly for 8 hours. I did mine overnight and had fresh bread on the counter by about 7am!

This is the dough after just a couple of "kneads." Ready to bake.

Red Fife Bread

Rise: 8 hours  |  Bake: 35 min  |  Yield 1 loaf

3 cups red fife flour

1 cup spelt flour

1 cup unbleached white flour

1 tbsp yeast

1 tsp salt

3 cups lukewarm water

butter

Mix together all the ingredients except the butter in a Dutch oven.

Knead as best you can with your hands for about 3 minutes. It is easiest done by pulling the dough from the bottom of the pot up onto the top, almost like folding. It will be a sticky mess. 

Alternatively you could knead it in a mixer with dough hook for 3 minutes, but that defeats the idea of making it in a “heritage” manner.

Rub the top with softened butter. Cover with a lid and let sit overnight.

In the morning, remove the dough from the pot and knead briefly. It will be far easier to work with now.

Wash and dry the Dutch oven, and then rub the interior generously with butter. Plop the dough back in the pot and let it sit while the oven preheats.

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Once it reaches heat, bake the bread for 35 minutes, or until the interior sounds hollow when tapped with your fingers.

Remove the bread to a rack to cool.

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Questions? Comments? Derogatory remarks? Just ask! I’ll answer quickly and as best as I can. If you like this post feel free to share it. If you repost, please give me credit and a link back to this site.

Easter Baking: Hot Cross Buns!

My mom used to say Greek Easter was later because you got stuff cheaper. – Amy Sedaris

Light, fluffy, spicy and sweet. What more can one ask?

Some things are very seasonal. Pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving and barbecue in the summer are two good examples. So are hot cross buns at Easter. Try to find them in a bakery any time other than the week before. Impossible.

That's a shame because they're delicious. Hot cross buns are a sweet bread roll with spice and currants – or raisins – and icing in a cross shape on top. They're kind of like a sticky bun in a different shape (and without all the sticky). What's not to love?

After kneading, before first rise. Currants will fall out as you
knead. Just stick them back in the dough.

For success you need to find a recipe that gives you moist buns. I have a perfect one, courtesy of my much-loved Great Aunt Hilda, or more accurately her handwritten cookbook. Her recipe dates from at least the 1960s, and probably quite a bit earlier. My recipe is almost identical, but of course I couldn't leave well enough alone... I fiddled with the spice amounts.

The amount of both the spice and currants can be adjusted to your own liking. I find “store-bought” very frugal on both counts.

There’s actually some interesting history surrounding these spiced, moist buns. Read on.

After first rise.

History and Folklore

Abridged from Wikipedia

Hot cross buns are traditionally eaten on Good Friday, with the cross standing as a symbol of the Crucifixion. They are believed by some to pre-date Christianity, although the first recorded use of the term "hot cross bun" was not until 1733.

It is believed that buns marked with a cross were eaten by Saxons in honour of the goddess Eostre (the cross is thought to have symbolized the four quarters of the moon); "Eostre" is probably the origin of the name "Easter". Others claim that the Greeks marked cakes with a cross, much earlier.

One superstition says that buns baked and served on Good Friday will not spoil or become mouldy during the subsequent year. Another encourages keeping such a bun for medicinal purposes. A piece of it given to someone who is ill was said to help them recover.

Sharing a hot cross bun with another person is supposed to ensure friendship throughout the coming year, particularly if "Half for you and half for me, Between us two shall goodwill be" is said at the time.  If taken on a sea voyage, hot cross buns are said to protect against shipwreck. If hung in the kitchen, they are said to protect against fires and ensure that all breads turn out perfectly. 

So rolls that will last a whole year, eh? I doubt that quite a lot. These never last more than a day or two in my house! These are excellent, and 8-12 will be nowhere near enough if you have family coming. So double the recipe. They always make a good gift.

Hot cross buns only take a few hours to make, and most of that time is in waiting for the dough to rise, so there’s really no reason you can’t start them in the morning, do whatever you need to do during the day, and come back and finish the process.

They’re well worth the very minimal effort.

Here's a useful kitchen hint. Buying yeast in packets can be expensive if you do a fair amount of baking. Buy yeast at a bulk food store and place it in a jar in your freezer. It does nothing to the yeast and will last for months and months, remaining as fresh as when you bought it.

Also, don't forget today is Thursday. Depending on where you live stores are closed tomorrow (Good Friday), open on Saturday and then closed again on Easter Sunday. So if you have to do any holiday shopping (turkey, ham, roast, whatever) do it today to avoid disappointment!

Dividing into 8 makes large-ish buns...12 makes more manageable
sized buns but take a few minutes more to bake.

Old-Fashioned Hot Cross Buns

Prep: 20 min  |  Rise: 2-2.5 hours  |  Makes 8-12 buns

3/4 cup water, heated to 110°F

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup powdered milk

1/4 cup white sugar

1 tbsp active dry yeast 

1 cup dried currants

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon 

1/2 tsp allspice (or nutmeg)

2 lg eggs 

3 cups unbleached flour

3/4 cup confectioners' sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 

3 tsp coffee cream

Heat the water, powdered milk, butter and sugar in a small saucepan until the butter is melted and the liquid reaches a temperature of 110°F. If it's any warmer you'll kill the yeast when you add it.

Sprinkle the yeast over the top of the liquid. Stir gently, cover and let sit for 10-15 minutes to proof. At the end of the time the yeast should be creamy. If not, throw it out and start again with fresh yeast.

Icing in a plastic bag ready to apply.

Place the currants in a large bowl. Add the salt, cinnamon, allspice, eggs and proofed yeast liquid. Mix well and then add the flour. Stir until it comes together, then transfer to a board and knead for 5 minutes. The dough will still be “wet” but won’t stick to your hands or the board.

Place back in the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and a tea towel and let rise in a warm spot until doubled. This will take about 2 hours. (I didn't have as warm a spot as usual for my bread and my first rise was 2.5 hours...)

At the end of the rise, punch down and divide into 8-12 equal balls. 8 balls make good sized buns, 12 make the number of apostles…

Arrange the balls in an 8” x 8” oven-proof dish. Let rise again until doubled, about 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 375°F. Just before baking cut a small cross in the top of each bun. This will help the icing stay on top in a cross shape.

Bake for 20-25 minutes (30 min if making 8 because they're larger). Remove from the oven and rub with butter. Let the buns cool for 10 minutes.

Mix together the confectioner’s sugar, vanilla and cream. Place in a plastic bag, snip off the end, and squeeze a cross on the top of each bun.

My "crosses" leave a little to be desired. I think I snipped too big an end off my
icing bag. It should only be 1/4" wide.

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