Comments on: Hot Cross Buns, Cardamom and Golden Sultana

By: Easter in the Homeschool: Homeschooling Recipes for Easter

Easter in the Homeschool: Homeschooling Recipes for Easter — Tue, 04 May 2010 13:29:01 +0000

[...] Hot Cross Buns, Cardamom and Golden Sultana Recipe by Madalene … [...]

By: Lisa

Lisa — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 10:27:25 +0000

I made these this morning – just delicious, thank you for the recipe. The milk curdled on the second heating with the sultanas, so I redid it and just let them sit in the milk still warm from the first heating – what did I do wrong?

They were lovely, fluffy and light, although a little overdone on the outside, but my oven does tend to run a little hot and I got distracted and didn’t check them early enough.

By: Madalene

Madalene — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 10:25:39 +0000

Hi Lisa,
It’s o.k if the milk curdle, I think it must have been the acid content in your sultanas. It’s o.k it would be like sour cream which is fine.
I’m pleased you enjoyed them, to enjoy the rest tomorrow morning just reheat the hot cross buns for a few seconds, they will become just as light and fluffy as today.
Happy Easter.
Madalene

By: Hanna

Hanna — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 00:51:05 +0000

thanks, madalene! your answer came just in time to let me plan my shopping trip so i can try the recipe on saturday. perfect!

By: Ruth

Ruth — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:10:40 +0000

I made these the other evening and they were lovely when they came out of the oven but as they cooled they became pretty hard and the next day even more so. I was wondering if you had any tips to make them lighter and fluffier? I am going to try again tonight!

Happy Easter
Ruth

By: Madalene

Madalene — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:00:51 +0000

Hi Ruth,
Ooh I’m baffled to as why your hot cross buns became hard.
All I could suggest is that you should make sure that the dough prove to it’s full extend, it must be at leas double in size to make them lovely and light as the yeast needs to do it’s job.
Perhaps they could have been taken out of the oven 5 minutes before the time was up, over baked buns can go hard fairly quickly, perhaps your oven is a bit hotter than mine.
If you cover them with clingfilm over night once cooled completely they should stay soft for the next day.
Home made breads and yeast goods normally do not stay soft and fresh for more than two days, I find mine normally start to go stale after one day, but not immediately as in your case.
I hope my reply is helping, hope you have better luck next time.
All the best and a very happy Easter.
Madalene

By: Hanna

Hanna — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 23:30:29 +0000

i’d like to try making these as a treat this weekend, but i have what may be a very silly question: what makes up the mixed spice in the dough recipe? i can guess at some things that would go well with the cardamom (which i love!), but i was wondering if there was something specific i should be sure to include. thanks!

By: Madalene

Madalene — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 23:29:57 +0000

HI Hanna,
This is not a silly question, I’m more than happy to explain. Mixed Spice is a ingredient that you should be able to purchase from most supermarkets and it’s a mixture of spices used mainly for sweet foods such as cakes, sweet breads and fruit pies, commonly used around Christmas and Easter. The most common ground mix spice combination is cloves, cinnamon, all spice, nutmeg and ground ginger. Then you could also make a mixed spice combination more aimed at savoury cooking by adding spices such as mace, coriander seed, cumin and for a bit of heat add cayenne pepper to the standard mixed spice mixture.
Happy Baking,
Madalene

By: Amanda

Amanda — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 01:29:42 +0000

Thanks so much for the TM instructions!
Now I really will make these – the cardamom just seems like an inspired touch!

By: Barry

Barry — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 18:36:20 +0000

hey chef… how big were your buns… theres over a kilo of mix there