Tags: Chocolate From the Oven Hidden Fruit

I was getting ready to start this post by saying “Easter is one of my favorite holidays” when I realized I start all my holiday posts that way. And now that I think about it, I don’t believe I have a favorite holiday…I literally love them ALL! But really, Easter is pretty special in my book.

When I was growing up, Easter was a huge deal in our home. My sister and I got new Easter dresses for church, and we woke up to Easter baskets from the Easter Bunny—even after we stopped believing in the Easter Bunny.

Truth be told, my dad kept the Easter baskets thing up until I got married and moved out…can we say: “spoiled much?!”

Every Easter after church, we’d head to either my Aunt Jill’s, Aunt Mary’s, or Aunt Katherine’s house for a huge family celebration. We have a big family, which means there were always plenty of cousins to run around hunting eggs with, and plenty of aunts and uncles to help you cheat when egg hunting—it’ll be forever grateful, Uncle David.

Then there was the food: mashed potatoes, potatoes Au Gratin’d, pasta salads, green salads, a variety of salads, tons of vegetable sides I never touched, casseroles for days, “Grama’s Beans”—you really don’t want to know what’s in them–and the crowning glory…The Ham. My love of food began at a very early age because I come from a family of wonderful cooks!   

Easter has looked very different for me since we moved out of California and away from family, but each year I try to bring as much “Dehn-Family” tradition into our home as I can squeeze. This year I’ve decided to tackle something inspired by my Aunt Bonnie—Hot Cross Buns. She made hot cross buns an Easter or two ago and posted the finished product on Facebook…they looked absolutely delicious! I’ve decided I need those on my Easter table this year.  

Now, I don’t have her recipe, but I hope she’d approve of this one. It’s basically a very traditional recipe—which I found online, made, and was so not impressed with—flipped on it’s head and transformed into something worthy of gracing a Dehn-Family Easter celebration table.

I hope you have a very blessed Easter!

NOTES:

• I used dried cranberries and dried blueberries, but you can use whatever dried fruit you prefer. You just need ½ cup of dried fruit.
• White chocolate chips were definitely a detour from the traditional recipe, but OH SO YUMMY! However, if you’re not a white chocolate fan, just remove it from the recipe and add an additional ¼ cup of dried fruit.
• You basically need ¾ cup of filling. However, you decided to divvy that up—be it dried fruit, chocolate, candied citrus peel—is entirely up to you.
• Your dried fruit should be re-hydrated before use. Put them in a bowl, cover them with hot water, let them sit for a minute or two, drain the water, and pat them dry.
• I like to toss the re-hydrated fruit in a little flour before adding them to the dough. This makes for good fruit distribution in my opinion.

HOT CROSS BUNS

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
• ⅛ tsp ground allspice
• zest of 1 orange
• 1 cup whole milk
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cubed
• 1 Tbsp active dry yeast
• 2 eggs, beaten
• ¾ cup dried fruit/chocolate mixture of your choice
• 1 egg & 1 Tbsp milk, for egg wash
• ¼ cup flour & 2 ½-3 Tbsp all-purpose flour, for crosses

In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, orange zest. Set aside.

Heat milk and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat until sugar completely dissolves. Remove from heat and add butter—stir until melted. Once mixture reaches between 110-115°, whisk in yeast and let stand until bubbly (about 10 minutes) Transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a hook attachment.

Add beaten eggs and flour mixture and knead on medium-low speed until all ingredients are incorporated. Add fruit/chocolate and knead until just incorporated.

Scrape dough (it will be sticky) onto a floured surface and knead until dough is smooth. Shape into a ball and place in a large bowl. Cover bowl with a tea-towel and let dough rise in a warm place until doubled in size (about 2 hours)

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Punch down dough; cut into 18 equal pieces. Shape dough pieces into rounds and place on prepared baking sheet. Cover again and let rest in a warm place until doubled in size and dough does not spring back when touched (about 2 hours)

Preheat oven to 375°

Whisk together egg and milk in a small bowl. Brush buns with egg wash. Whisk together flour and water to make paste for crosses. Mixture should be pipeable but not watery. Pipe crosses on top of bun.

Bake until golden and internal temperature reaches 190° (about 20 minutes)