Dazz Switalla Flavour Secrets No.1 The Strand Chef www.no1thestrand.co.nz

At this time of the year chocolate eggs and hot cross buns are devoured with great gusto by family and friends.

I haven't thought about making my own Easter eggs but my new boss forgot to order the hot cross buns in time for the cafe, so I drew the short straw and began to hunt down the ingredients to get a batch ready.

Hot cross buns have historical origins from Christian countries and are traditionally eaten or toasted during lent, beginning with the evening of Shrove Tuesday through to midday Good Friday.

Now that seems a bit strange, as hot cross buns seem to appear in the shops soon after Christmas and don't appear to be getting any cheaper.

But they are fairly cheap to make and there's always a pleasure in making something yourself.

Mystery still shrouds the first reports of crosses marked on the sticky sweet bun but it seems likely to be of Greek origin, where recipes using crosses marked on small cakes first appeared.

The trick to making a good bun is patience and not overdoing the spices, as some bakers tend to, as this impedes the yeast to some degree.

The recipe I use calls for raisins or sultanas and peel but I always leave this out and substitute some lemon and orange zest instead. As who has a packet of peel in there pantry anyway?

Hot cross buns

Ingredients

500g bakers' flour
½ tsp salt
2 tsp heaped with mixed spice
2 tsp cinnamon
60g sugar
50g butter
200g raisins or sultanas
200ml milk
2 eggs
8g yeast
Zest from 2 lemons
Zest from 2 oranges
Apricot jam for glazing
Extra flour and cornflour for crosses

Method

Tip the flour into a bowl and mix in spices and sugar. Rub the butter in with your fingertips, then add the dried fruit and zest.

Warm milk and beat in eggs, then add yeast and a little bit of the spiced flour mix to form a sloppy batter. Leave batter to bubble away for 15 minutes.

Add batter to the rest of the dry ingredients and mix by hand, kneading for a few minutes to combine everything together.

Leave in a warm place to double in size for about an hour. Divide the dough and shape into even-sized balls and put onto a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Leave to rise again for about one-hour-and-a-half.

Separately, mix some plain flour and cornflour with a little water to make the crosses.

Criss-cross the buns with the flour mix. Then bake the buns at 220 degrees Celsius for about 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Remove from, oven and glaze with a little warmed apricot jam thinned with water while still warm.