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We’ve prob­a­bly all sang that lit­tle ditty at some time in our lives.  I know we did when we were kids grow­ing up in Aus­tralia.  Bread often plays a major role in hol­i­day and reli­gious obser­vances. The hot cross bun is tra­di­tional Lenton bread, its exact ori­gins unknown. Some say that it has pagan ori­gins, the cross rep­re­sent­ing the moon and its four quar­ters. Anglo-Saxons ate the sacra­men­tal buns in honor of their god­dess Eas­t­ore. When the Romans arrived in Britain, the clergy tried to stop the use of the sacra­men­tal buns, but could not. So they blessed them and gave the cross on the buns a Chris­t­ian mean­ing. Tra­di­tion­ally these buns are dec­o­rated with dough piped across the top before bak­ing, not a sweet icing as is com­monly seen. A thin glaze brushed over the buns pro­vides the added sweetness.

Yield: 30 Rolls

Ingre­di­ents:

Dough
10 ounces Golden raisins
10 ounces Dark raisins
3 ounces Can­died orange peel
2 lb. 4 oz. Bread flour
4 ounces Short­en­ing
3 1/2 ounces Gran­u­lated sugar
10 grams Dough con­di­tioner, optional
2 ounces Dry milk pow­der
2 3/4 ounces Com­pressed yeast
1 Table­spoon Salt
2 Eggs
1 tea­spoon Vanilla extract
1 tea­spoon Car­damom, ground
1 tea­spoon All­spice, ground
2 tea­spoons Gin­ger, ground
1 Table­spoon Cin­na­mon, ground
19 fluid ounces Water

Cross Dough
4 ounces Pas­try flour
3/4 ounce Short­en­ing
3 1/2 fluid ounces Milk

6 fluid ounces Bun Glaze

Method:

1.    Place the raisins and can­died orange peel in a small bowl and cover with hot water. Let soften in the water for 5 min­utes. Drain the water and let the fruit con­di­tion for 2 to 4 hours before using. Set aside.

2.    Place the flour, short­en­ing, sugar, dough con­di­tioner, if using, dry milk pow­der, yeast, salt, eggs, vanilla extract and spices in the bowl of a mixer fit­ted with the dough hook. Add the water and mix the dough on low speed for 3 min­utes until moist­ened. Stop the machine and scrape the bowl. Add addi­tional flour if nec­es­sary to cre­ate a soft dough. Mix the dough on medium speed for 6 to 7 min­utes until it is soft and pliable.

3.    Add the con­di­tioned fruit and mix the dough on low speed until the fruit is well dis­trib­uted in the dough. If nec­es­sary, dust the dough lightly with more flour to help the fruit incorporate.

4.    Scrape the dough onto a flour-dusted work­bench. Cover and fer­ment for 30 min­utes. Deflate the dough and fold it into thirds then let it rest for another 15 minutes.

5.    Divide the dough into 3–1/2-ounce (100-gram) pieces. Round the dough into tight rolls with a smooth top sur­face. Place the formed rolls, seam side down on a paper-lined half sheet pan. Posi­tion them in rows on the tray, 5 rolls by 6 rolls so that the rolls touch when fully proofed.

6.    Proof the rolls with low humid­ity until dou­bled in size, approx­i­mately 50 minutes.

7.    While the rolls proof, pre­pare the cross dough. Com­bine the pas­try flour, short­en­ing and milk in the bowl of a mixer fit­ted with a pad­dle attach­ment. Mix on medium speed until the short­en­ing is well blended and the dough is lump free.

8.    When the rolls have proofed, scoop the cross mix­ture into a pas­try bag fit­ted with a plain tip. Quickly pipe a cross over the sur­face of each roll.

9.    Bake at 375°F (190°C) until the rolls are a rich brown color, approx­i­mately 15 minutes.

10.    Brush the hot rolls gen­er­ously with the chilled Bun Glaze, mak­ing cer­tain they are well coated so that no dry spots appear when the glaze dries.

Source: On Bak­ing — Laben­sky et. al.

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My fam­ily love Chi­nese style bbq pork buns (char siu bao).  I had made a roast pork the night before last and wanted to use up some of the left­overs.  Of course my pork wasn’t roasted in the tra­di­tional Chi­nese bbq style, but with the addi­tion of a sauce mixed into my roast pork, I felt I could get away with it. For the bun dough I used the mas­ter recipe from my copy of Arti­san Bread in Five Min­utes a Day.

Ingre­di­ents:

Bun dough:

Mas­ter Recipe here.

Roast Pork:

2 cups of roast pork diced (I used left­overs remember)

Sauce:

(Adapted from The Chi­nese Kitchen by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo)

For the Fill­ing (make while the dough is ris­ing):
5 table­spoons low-sodium chicken stock
1 tbsp oys­ter sauce
2  1/2 tsp sugar
2  1/4 tsp tapi­oca or corn starch
2 tsp ketchup
1  1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
Pinch ground white pep­per
1 tbsp oil
1 small onion, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
3/4 cup bar­be­cued pork, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 1/2 tsp Shao Xing rice wine or gin
1 tsp toasted sesame oil

In a small bowl, com­bine chicken stock, oys­ter sauce, sugar, tapi­oca starch, ketchup, soy sauce, and white pep­per; set aside.

Heat a wok or pan over high heat for 40 sec­onds and add oil. Coat wok with oil using a spat­ula then add onion. Lower heat to medium, and cook until onion turns light brown, about 2 min­utes. Raise heat to high, add pork, and cook, stir­ring, for 2 min­utes. Add wine, and stir to combine.

Stir the reserved stock mix­ture and add it to the pan. Cook, stir­ring, until the sauce thick­ens and turns brown, 1 to 1 1/2 min­utes. Add sesame oil, and stir to com­bine. Trans­fer to a shal­low dish. Cool to room temperature.

Assem­bly:

Pre­heat oven to 375F.

Once the dough has risen for the first time I took small pieces of it and flat­tened it to the size of a small saucer using floured hands so it didn’t stick.

Then take about one heaped table­spoon of the pork fill­ing and place in the cen­ter of the dough disc.

Gather up the sides of the dough disc to form a ball shape enclos­ing the fill­ing.  Be sure to seal the fill­ing inside of the dough or it will leak out.   I placed my buns with the gath­ered seam side down and brushed with a beaten egg to give them a glossy finish.

Place buns on a sheet pan dusted with some flour and bake in the oven for approx­i­mately 15–20 mins depend­ing on your oven.

I served mine with a plum sauce for dip­ping which was a great compliment.

***As I said before, these are a quick cheats way to make pork buns, so if you are look­ing for the tra­di­tional char siu bao, then this recipe prob­a­bly isn’t for you.  It was really a way of using up our left­overs and enjoy­ing the pork in a dif­fer­ent way to how it was first served up.