Lyle's Hot Cross Buns

Hot cross buns are an Easter staple in Britain, and just like we have mince pies in the weeks leading up to Christmas, you’ll find a big plate of warm and spiced teacakes on our coffee bar in the run up to Easter. Here's our pastry chef's Anna's recipe so you can make them at home.

INGREDIENTS
1/4tsp mace
1/4tsp allspice
1/2tsp mixed spice
1/4tsp ginger
1/4tsp cinnamon

450g strong white flour + 75g for the cross
100g butter
10g salt
15g spice mix
50g dark brown sugar

180ml milk
20g fresh yeast
3 eggs

250g raisins (soaked in tea overnight)
100g currants (soaked in tea overnight)
100g candied peel- diced

METHOD
Whisk the mace, allspice, mixed spice, ginger and cinnamon until combined.
Grate the butter into the flour and add salt, sugar and spice mix.
Mix on a low speed in stand mixer until the butter is mixed through the flour.
Dissolve the yeast into the milk and slowly pour into the mixer along with the eggs.
Mix on a medium speed for 8-10 mins until you have a smooth, well developed dough. It will be fairly sticky.
Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a bowl. Let it prove to double in size (approx 2 hours).
Strain off the raisins and currants. You can re-use the tea to soak multiple batches of fruit.
Dice the candied peel.
Once the dough has doubled, knead through the fruit and peel, making sure it is well dispersed through the dough. It will feel very sticky once the fruit has been added.
Rest the dough for 5-10 minutes in order for the dough to ‘relax’.
Divide the dough into 100g  pieces and using plenty of flour on your hands and work bench shape into balls. We then put the buns into greased muffin tins but you can prove them set closely together on a baking tray like traditional buns. Mix the remaining flour with enough water to form a thick paste and pipe a cross onto each bun.
Prove until doubled in size.
Bake in a preheated oven at 170c for 15 minutes until golden brown.