Food for Thought: Hot Cross Buns

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Hot Cross Buns

From Pan Chancho bakery...

'Hot Cross Buns' is an English language nursery rhyme, Easter song and street cry referring to the spiced English bun associated with Good Friday. The most common modern version is:

Hot cross buns!
Hot cross buns!
One ha' penny, two ha' penny,
Hot cross buns!
If you have no daughters,
Give them to your sons
One ha' penny,
Two ha' penny,
Hot Cross Buns!

There is not a nursery rhyme that I don't know. As a child I must have thought that learning rhymes was my responsibility, or perhaps my job. This particular rhyme doesn't appear to make a lot of sense. All I can tell you is that the buns are more expensive than they used to be.

The photo shows the famous and much sought-after buns from the Pan Chancho Bakery and the following is their recipe.

Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 cups of warm water
- 1/2 cup of butter, softened
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
- 6 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup of milk powder
- 2 eggs slightly beaten
- 1 tablespoon of the spice mix
- 1 tablespoon of sea salt
- 1 and 1/2 cups of dried currants
- 1 cup chopped candied peel, mixed
- 1 and 1/2 cups of sultana raisins
- 1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons of milk (the egg 'wash')

Spice Mix
- 4 teaspoons ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons allspice
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon

- Icing
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 and 1/2 cups of icing sugar
- zest of 1 lemon

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. After about 10 minutes, stir in the butter, 2 lightly beaten eggs and milk powder. Add the flour, sugar, spice mixture, salt,currants, raisins and citrus peel and mix well. Turn the dough on to a floured board and kneed until "silky". Leave to rise (in a greased bowl, and covered in plastic wrap) in a warm place for 2-3 hours until the dough has doubled in size. Punch down the dough and shape into 18 buns. Place on a greased baking sheet and allow the dough to rise again until not quite doubled in size. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Slash the tops of the buns with a razor blade (quite dramatic, I think). Just before putting the buns in the oven, brush the tops with the egg-milk wash. Bake for 20 minutes. To make the icing , warm the lemon juice in a small sauce pan, the stir in the sugar and add the lemon zest. Ice the slightly cooled buns with a cross of icing.

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'To Cut the Mustard'

Meaning: To succeed; to come up to expectations.

Origin: Why cutting mustard was chosen as an example of high quality is unclear. Some possibilities allude to the literal difficulty of cutting mustard;for example: - Mustard seed, which is hard to cut with a knife on account of being small and shiny. - Mustard plants, which are tough and stringy and grow densely. - Culinary mustard, which is cut (diluted) and made more palatable by the addition of vinegar. - Dried mustard paste, which was reputedly used to coat meat and then dried to form a crust.

The love of olive oil...

I finally figured it out...why I love olive oil so much. It was the television programming I was exposed to as a child. See the following description, from the online Encylclopedia Britanica, of a character I admired. I lusted after the large boxes of chocolates she would consume in one sitting.

Tall, gangly, big-footed Olive Oyl, whose black hair was almost always tied back in a bun, first co-starred with her brother, Castor Oyl, in 1919 in the newspaper comic strip Thimble Theatre. For the strip’s first 10 years, she was the girlfriend of Castor’s layabout pal, Ham Gravy, and her jealousy over his wandering eye fueled many comedic episodes. However, soon after the introduction of Popeye in 1929, Ham was written out of the strip as Olive found true love with the salty sailor. In this coupling, she was the more fickle character, as from time to time she became drawn to suitors with more education and refinement than the scrappy, wisecracking Popeye, though he always won her back. Popeye rescued Olive Oyl hundreds of times from the nefarious bully Bluto.

A Funky Review of a Funky Cookbook by a Funky Girl

“Bite me speaks to more than your stomach,” reads an excerpt on one of the first pages of the newly released cookbook, Bite me, by sassy sisters Julie Albert and Lisa Gnat. From the tongue in cheek, retro photographs that grace many of the pages to the aptly chosen, often perfectly crude quotations; Bite me is a cookbook that also speaks to your sense of humour and playfulness.
The book is decidedly un-pretentious, which is exactly what the sisters had in mind when creating the book, and exactly what appeals to me as a twenty something with not much experience in the kitchen. At the book’s launch on October 6th at an Indigo location in Toronto, Julie was the first to boast that many of the props in the self-published book came from the dollar store. The price- perfect. The look- genius. The props convey just the right amount of kitsch and comedy.
Heather Reisman, CEO of Indigo and famous as Heather of ‘Heather’s Picks’ obviously saw the same genius in these first time authors. The book is now the first cookbook to ever be chosen as a ‘Heather’s Pick’ at Chapters and Indigo stores nationwide.
I personally know Julie Albert, as I tutor her adorable, charming son Benjy, here in Toronto, Ontario. Julie is most often seen looking flawless, but approachable- laid back in jeans or yoga pants, shuffling her kids from one activity to another. She is exactly the involved Mom who wants delicious, easy, home cooking with a twist, to feed to her family. That was the goal for the sisters- no mushroom foam, no truffle scented this or that. Just fun, easy variations on your favourites- using simple ingredients with a dash of wit, and some of Lisa and Julie’s own kitchen secrets. Oh- and a man with his head stuffed down a woman’s shirt. You have to buy the book to take a look at that last one.
I am buying the book for all the cooks in my family this Christmas. Even for a cook with many books, this one is a standout- almost more coffee table material than shelved with other cookery bibles.
If you need a giggle- go buy it. If you need a recipe for pecan crusted lime chicken- buy it. To the self-professedly “not so sweet, tiny-bit salty” sisters- great job. I forkin’ love it.

Jessie Bass-West

Link to Bite me http://www.bitemecookbook.com/

Pages

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Hot Cross Buns

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