Good Friday Tradition: Hot Cross Buns

In celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ following his crucifixion on the cross, Hot Cross Buns have been an Easter tradition dating back to the nineteenth century in England. I thought there was absolutely no excuse for me not to attempt these on my own, so this morning I found a few recipes on the Internet. I then created my own version that I adapted to work closely with my basic dinner roll recipe.

The only changes I made to the dinner roll recipe were the following:

• Substituted 1 1/2 cups of warm milk for the 1 1/2 cups of warm water.
  
• Used slightly less than 1/3 cup olive oil and then added 1 Tbsp. butter.
  
• Used 1 tsp (not 2 tsp.) of sea salt.
• For the flour, you can use any combination of grains you desire. I used 1 cup hard white wheat and 2 cups of Kamut to yield the required 4 1/2 cups of flour needed.
• During the quick dough cycle, when the Zoji starts beeping with 20 minutes remaining in the 45 minute cycle with the word "ADD" flashing, I added 1 heaping cup of raisins mixed with 1 tsp. cinnamon.
  
• The only other change was the temperature I baked the Hot Cross Buns at compared to the dinner rolls. I lowered the temperature to 375 degrees and baked for 18 minutes.
  

Here is what your liquids will look like in your bread pan prior to adding the dry ingredients:


You will then add your 4 1/2 cups of flour directly on top of the liquids, along with the lecithin, gluten and yeast before hitting start on the 45 minute quick dough cycle on your Zoji.


While the dough is kneading, I went ahead and prepared the raisins and cinnamon to add during the dough cycle when the "ADD" button starts flashing. I stirred the cinnamon in with the raisins. The original Hot Cross Buns recipe actually calls for currents along with various other spices (nutmeg, etc) and other optional dried fruits. Most Americans have adopted a similar version to this one using the raisins and cinnamon. I did look for some dried currents at Whole Foods this week only I wasn't about to pay $7 for a cup of dried fruit for one recipe....raisins would have to do!
This is what the Zoji will look like when it's time to add the raisins and cinnamon to the dough:


And this is what the dough will look like after you have dumped the cinnamon and raisins into it:

After the dough completes the remaining 20 minutes of kneading and then a short rise, it will look like this:

The dough is now ready to break off and shaped into fist size (or whatever size you wish) balls. I wanted mine to have that break apart appearance, so I placed them close enough together that they'd touch when they baked and pull apart for serving. I used a basic casserole dish, but I suppose you could use a cookie sheet or whatever you fancy.

I let them rise for only about 20 minutes (since I was pressed for time with a 10:30 hair appointment this morning to get to!) This is what they looked like after 20 minutes....good enough as far as I'm concerned. I did brush the tops of each roll with a mixture of an egg yolk and 2 Tbsp. of water to give them a glossy/ golden brown appearance.


And after 18 minutes of baking at 375 degrees, this is what they looked like:

After letting them cool, I added the symbolic cross with a white icing (1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1/2 tsp. Vanilla and 2 TBS. milk).

I was actually really pleased with how these turned out and how easy it was to adapt this recipe to work with the Zoji and an existing tried and true recipe I had for yeast dinner rolls.

We enjoyed a wonderful Good Friday together as a family and enjoyed reading a few different accounts of the Crucifixion from the bible with the kids. We also did an activity courtesy of KidStuf at our church where they supplied each family with a blank canvas and instructions for each family member to graffiti the canvas with words describing areas they struggle with or get in trouble with often. It was interesting to see what our kids chose for the their words, but I'm at least pleased to see that they did agree that whining and disobedience should be on there!! We then hung the canvas on a wall in our kitchen and then on Easter, each family member will take some of the supplied spackling and essentially wash away the words with the white spackling to symbolize how Jesus's death on the cross and then resurrection washed away our sins.

"Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." Isaiah 1:18

Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

Last month we celebrated my oldest daughter, Aubrey, turning 7 on the 17th and my middle child, Faith, turning 5 on the 29th. For the past several years as January rolled around, I'd promptly email my favorite cake lady, Gretchen, to get on her schedule for our spring birthdays. If you have ever tasted or looked at one of her cakes, you know what I'm talking about...they are amazing!! Unfortunately, she has decided to suspend operations of her business , so I'm now on my own. And, since I have a slight aversion to grocery store cakes (not that they taste bad, they just tend to lack the originality that I like to mark special events with), I decided that until I find a replacement for my much loved cake lady, that I'd have to attempt something on my own. I asked my girls what kind of cake they'd like for their birthdays this year and they both begged for cookie cakes. I was quite relieved considering it seemed much less complicated than a fancy cake, as free hand decorating and hand writing is not my strength.

I decided to go ahead and purchase a reliable 16" Wilton cake pan from Michael's (using my 40% off coupon, of course!). The pizza pan I had was too small and wouldn't create a cookie that was the size of one of those giant ones you can get from Great American Cookie Company.....which is what I was going for.

I used my basic chocolate chip cookie recipe from Bread Becker's and simply pressed all of the dough the recipe makes into a the greased (sprayed with Pam) pan, leaving about a half an inch space around the edges for the dough to expand as it bakes.


Recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake:
(adapted from Bread Beckers Recipe Collection)

1 cup butter
1 cup Sucanat w/honey
1 cup Sucanat
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3 1/2 cups freshly milled soft white wheat flour
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2-2 cups chocolate chips (I used half jumbo semi-sweet chocolate chips and half regular)

Cream butter and Sucanat making a grainy paste. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well. Mix dry ingredients and stir into creamed mixture. Add chocolate chips. Press all of dough into large round or rectangle pizza pan, leaving about 1/2 inch space between edge of pan to allow dough to spread while baking. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes.

For the icing, instead of experimenting with a sucanat based icing (which I'm sure is fabulous), I decided to go with a tried and true icing recipe. I tried two different recipes, both were delish, but I'm probably a bit partial to the old-fashioned butter cream and the combo of chocolate and vanilla butter cream on Faith's cake was really tasty!

For Aubrey's cookie cake, I made this frosting I found on the Pioneer Woman's website.

For Faith's cookie cake, I made Wilton's Classic Butter Cream and Chocolate Butter Cream Icing.

The options are endless for decorating a cookie cake from dying the icing different colors to using a variety of sprinkles. This area is not my expertise, so I'll limit any more suggestions!


The cookie cake ended up being a big hit with both girls classes at school and one cookie cake recipe easily feeds a generous slice for about 15-20 people.

I will DEFINITELY be repeating this for many birthdays to come!

One last thing, having nothing to do with baking cookie cakes, but everything to do with birthday sweets!! I also had a fun time making a festive cupcake tower for both of my girls birthday parties. I experimented with a few cupcake recipes using my soft white wheat flour and while they tasted great, I kept getting a crumbly consistency. So, I committed what's a bit of a sin in the world of freshly milled baking and used store bought flour for the cupcakes and used a classic and reliable Martha Recipe for them. For the icing, I used the same Wilton Butter Cream Icing as I used in Faith's cookie cake above. I have a friend that has mastered the cupcakes using her soft white wheat, so I'll experiment more with that later on.


















*P.S. I made the cupcake toppers using designs I made in PowerPoint, then printed them out on card stock and used a round scallop punch. I then just taped lollipop sticks to the back of each. Now, I have a mini-break before round 3 of the spring birthdays when my sweet little guy turns three at the end of May.