MRS LOCKWOOD’S RECIPES HOT CROSS BUNS
From the fictional world of Mind The Trams
HOT CROSS BUNS
MRS LOCKWOOD INSISTS THERE IS STILL TIME TO MAKE THEM PROPERLY
Fruit, spice, a good glaze and sufficient patience — Mrs Lockwood shares her method for one of the bakery’s most anticipated seasonal treats.
There are certain things, according to Mrs Lockwood, which ought not to be hurried.
Bread is one of them.
Hot cross buns most certainly are another.
With their familiar mixture of warming spices, currants, sultanas and candied peel, a tray of freshly baked buns needs very little introduction. The smell travelling from the oven generally does the work.
Mrs Lockwood’s only concern is that they are made properly.
“Three rises,” she reminds us. “Not two because somebody has somewhere else to be.”
YOU WILL NEED
- 250g strong white flour
- ½ sachet fast-action yeast
- 2 tsp mixed spice
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp allspice
- 30g caster sugar
- A pinch of ground pepper
- A pinch of salt
- 35g butter
- ½ egg
- 75ml boiling water
- 75ml whole milk
- 30g candied lemon or orange peel
- 30g sultanas
- 30g currants
- Pastry for the crosses
- 1 beaten egg, for brushing
FOR THE GLAZE
- 4 tbsp water
- 4 tbsp sugar
MRS LOCKWOOD’S METHOD
Warm your mixing bowl with hot water and dry it thoroughly. Add the flour, yeast, spices, sugar, pepper and salt.
Cut the butter into small pieces and rub it into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the half egg.
Mix the boiling water and whole milk together, then gradually add the resulting warm liquid to the bowl. Work everything together with a wooden spoon until a soft dough forms.
Turn onto a lightly floured board and knead thoroughly for approximately ten minutes, until smooth and elastic.
“And properly, please. Waving it about for three minutes does not constitute kneading.”
Return the dough to the bowl, cover with a clean tea towel and leave somewhere comfortably warm for approximately one hour, or until it has doubled in size.
CLOCKS DO NOT MAKE BREAD — YEAST DOES
Turn the risen dough onto your board and work in the currants, sultanas and candied peel. Don’t worry when the dough loses some of its size; it is supposed to.
Return it to the bowl, cover and allow it to rise for a second hour.
Divide the dough into portions of approximately 50–60g and shape them into neat buns. Arrange in a prepared baking tin, leaving sufficient room between them to expand.
“Try to make them the same size. People notice the smallest bun remarkably quickly.”
Roll the pastry thinly and cut into narrow strips.
Brush the buns with beaten egg before laying the pastry strips across each one to form the traditional cross.
Cover once more and allow the buns their third rise for approximately 30 minutes.
Bake at 180°C / Gas Mark 4 for 18–20 minutes.
A properly baked bun should sound hollow when gently tapped underneath.
DON’T FORGET THE GLAZE
While the buns are baking, gently heat the sugar and water together until completely dissolved.
Brush the glaze generously over the buns immediately after they leave the oven.
Then comes perhaps the most difficult part of Mrs Lockwood’s recipe.
Wait ten minutes.
“Ten minutes means ten minutes. A burnt tongue is no reflection upon my recipe.”
MRS LOCKWOOD SAYS…
**IF BUTTER IS BEING OFFERED —
OFFER ENOUGH.**
Serve the buns while pleasantly warm, preferably accompanied by a pot of tea and considerably more butter than certain members of the household will claim is necessary.
Mrs Lockwood has already made her position on that matter perfectly clear.
NEXT WEEK FROM MRS LOCKWOOD’S KITCHEN…
Another favourite from the 1930s table.
And, despite persistent enquiries from readers—
NO. SHE STILL ISN’T REVEALING THE CHEESE PIE.
Mrs Lockwood is a fictional character from Gabriel Undici’s Mind The Trams. This feature is inspired by historical baking and is not associated with the former Lockwood’s Bakery of Oswaldtwistle.
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