Hot Cross Buns

Ingredients:

12 oz flour

good pinch salt

1 oz butter or substitute

4 oz dried fruit

2 oz candied peel

1/2 oz yeast

approx 3/4 pint of tepid water, milk and water or milk (your choice - but I prefer milk)

1-2 oz sugar

1 oz sugar for glaze

1 tablespoon water

The spice should be sieved with the flour.

Cream yeast yeast with a teaspoon of sugar. Add tepid liquid and a sprinkling of flour. Put into a warm place until the "sponge" breaks through.

Meanwhile sieve the flour, salt and spice into a warm bowl.

Rub in butter, and add sugar, fruit and peel.

When ready, work in yeast liquid and knead thoroughly.

Put into a warm place for approximately 1 hours or until the dough is double its original size.

The cross should be marked before proving. Do this with the back of a knife or by cutting thin strips of pastry and arranging on the top.

Alternatively, a paste can be made by combining flour and water, and piped onto the top of the buns.

Form into round buns and "prove" for 15 minutes on a warm tray.

Bake for 10 minutes in a very hot oven.

If buns are to be eaten straightaway, mix 1 oz sugar and 1 tablespoon of water, and glaze with this.

If, as so often happens, they are to be warmed again on Good Friday, make up glaze and brush after re-heating.

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