Savoury Bacon, Cheese & Egg Hot Cross Buns
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: minutes plus 1.5 hours resting time
Cooking time: 35 minutes
Serves: 13
- 25g/1oz bread flour
- 1/2 cup/125ml/4flozs water
- 1/4 cup/60g/2ozs. sugar
- 1.5 teaspoons salt
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup/250ml/8.8flozs milk
- 3 3/4 cups/560g/20ozs. bread flour
- 1 tablespoon/20g/0.7oz instant dried yeast
- 60g/2ozs butter, cubes, softened
- 250g/8.8ozs. bacon, trimmed and diced
- 2 cups/200g/7ozs. grated cheddar or tasty cheese
Flour crosses
- 40g/1.41ozs. plain flour
- Around 4-5 tablespoons water
Glaze:
- 1 egg yolk mixed with 2 teaspoons water
Step 1 - Make the tangzhong or water roux. Take 1/6 cup/25g/1oz of the flour and whisk with 1/2 cup/125ml/4flozs of water in a saucepan until smooth. Heat on low to medium heat and whisk until it thickens to become a roux. You want it to reach 65ºC/149ºF and it will take 3-5 minutes so just watch it so that it doesn't go over that temperature. Remove from the heat and whisk in the sugar, salt and eggs. Then gradually whisk in the milk until combined.
Step 2 - Place the rest of the bread flour and yeast in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook and whisk to distribute the flour and yeast.
Step 3 - Add the milky tangzhong mixture to the flour mix and stir to combine. Knead with the dough hook until it comes together to form a dough. Add the butter cubes one at a time and continue kneading. The dough needs to be elastic and stretchy but not break and can take up to 18-20 minutes kneading with the mixer. You should be able to pull it apart between your fingers and see through it without it breaking. Roll it into a ball making sure that there are no cracks on top of the ball and allow it to rise in a warm place. It should take less than an hour.
Step 4 - Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Chop the bacon into fine, bite sized pieces and grate the cheese. Mix the flour and water together to make a pipeable paste and place in a small piping bag. Punch down the dough add bacon and cheese and knead to mix them in well so that they are evenly distributed.
Troubleshooting: your dough will be sticky but try not to add too much flour. A little is fine because flour varies from supplier to batch but adding too much will affect the texture of the buns. Instead, slightly oil your hands just before shaping them.
Step 5 - Line a 36x28cm/14x11 inch baking tray with parchment. Grease your hands and weigh the dough. Mine was 1480 grams/3.2lbs total. I wanted to make my buns a bit bigger so I weighed them to 115g/5.3ozs. (usually my hot cross buns are smaller at 90g/3ozs. each). At this weight I got a baker's dozen of them. Then brush the egg yolk glaze on these. Do not give these a long rise, as long as they puff up a bit that is perfect. Cut a small hole at the end of the piping bag and pipe crosses on top and then bake for 30 minutes. Once baked allow to cool for 30 minutes, then split in half and fill with a fried egg. Heaven.
Personal Note
As it's getting close to the end of daylight savings here in Australia I apologise if the lighting isn't great in these shots. It was a miserably rainy day, albeit a bit warmer than normal and there was very little light left by the time I pulled these out of the oven. The smell was driving everyone in the house wild in the late afternoon including Teddy and Milo. We ended up eating these warm buns filled with drippy centered fried eggs for dinner.
Lately I've been getting into British crime procedurals because the rainy weather seems to suit them. So far I'm addicted to Slow Horses, Grace and The Capture which I can wholeheartedly recommend. A tv show has to be really captivating to grab my attention because I'm one of those people that spends a lot of the time scrolling my phone and before I know it I've had to rewind the show multiple times because every time there's a bit of a lull I pick up my phone to answer my messages and then before I know it I have no idea what is happening in the plot and that doesn't really work for mysteries. It got to a rather embarrassing point when Mr NQN started reciting the character's lines before they said them. I looked at him quizzically and he said, "That's the fourth time I've heard them say that," while smirking.
So tell me Dear Reader, are you a savoury or sweet tooth? And do you get easily distracted by your phone when you're watching tv or movies? Do you have any tv recommendations?