Easter Hot Cross Buns

Hot Cross Buns are a delicious spring treat! They represent good weather ahead and of course chocolate for breakfast on Easter morning.

My favorite part of this recipe is the fact that I have the excuse to buy rum! Soaking the raisins in rum before baking is a delicious and fun activity

Hot Cross Buns
375° F
Bake time: 20-25 minutes or until golden brown on the top.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups warm water
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp active dry yeast
4-5 cups all- purpose flour (depending on how well you drain your raisins)
a pinch of salt (I usually just dance the salt shaker over the bowl)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
1/4 (or half a cube) of margarine
1 cup of raisins soaked in rum*

Instructions
- To soak the raisins, immerse them in rum (*or water) just until covered for 5-10 minutes and then drain.
- Mix a small amount of the water and sugar with the yeast to activate it. Let sit until it's fermented.
- Combine the water, sugar, yeast mixture, flour, salt, cinnamon, eggs, margarine and raisins together to form a nice big ball of dough! 
- Set dough in a bowl and let rest for 10 minutes.
- Punch it down if need be after 10 minutes and divide into 80g balls and place in a greased pan.

- Let dough rest again for 10 minutes then make for 20-25 minutes.

- Once they are out of the oven, and still a little warm; brush them with a sugar syrup which is equal parts water and sugar (For this batch 1/4 cup water and sugar is more than enough)

- Let fully cool

- Once cooled icing can be added on! I don't really have a recipe for my danish icing, I just keep combining water and icing sugar until I like the thickness.

- And there we are! Delicious and festive. (And I hope you were drinking the extra rum the entire time as well.

Happy Baking!

Linzer Torte- Keeping the tradition of the Holidays

For the first time in many years I was asked to make a Linzer Torte for the holidays! Naturally I made sure that I still knew what I was doing before making one for others. Since it's been so long I no longer had a good recipe for one so I consoled the internet to get myself caught back up.

A little history on Linzer Tortes: Named after the city of Linz, Austria it's a holiday classic in Austria, Hungary, Sweden, and Germany and mainly seen on the dinner tables at Christmas time. Linzer tortes can be made in many sizes and shapes from cookies, tarts and tortes. I chose the torte for my experiment to make sure the baking times worked for the oven.

After researching loads of recipes on Pinterest and various other sites I managed to see the trends and the necessary measurements and ingredients to make an epic torte!







RECIPE

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees
Recipe for a 10" torte pan

3/4 cup Sugar
Zest of 1 Lemon
Zest of 1 Orange
3/4 cup Margarine
1 Egg
1 Egg Yolk
1 tsp Vanilla
1 1/3 cups Flour
1/4 cup Ground Hazelnuts
1/3 cup Ground Almonds
1 1/4 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Ground Cloves
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt

1 cup Raspberry Jam

I had some fun with my food processor and grounded my own nuts... It was loud but it was fun! Also treated myself to some new Wilton Torte pans.. So beautiful so untainted!

 


The crust- although has a lot of ingredients is very easy to make and much more fun to work with as opposed to it's cousin... The pie crust. Everything in it gives the torte it's unique texture and flavor. Nothing can be missed. It has a very distinct look on top with the lattice pipe work on top.

1. Mix the sugar and zest lightly and let sit for a minute to let the flavors settle in. Once settled cream with margarine.
2. Add in the eggs and vanilla, mix until just blended.
3. Add in flour, nuts, spices, baking powder and salt all together and divide the mixture in half- one half being larger then the other. Put the large half into the fridge for 10-15 minutes to set and scoop the small into a piping bag.
4. Time to prepare the torte pan and preheat the oven! Press the refrigerated mixture into the base of the pan. Set it in the fridge for a final 10-15 minutes.
5. Spread raspberry jam onto the base of the torte and pipe your choice of design over top of the jam. Don't be afraid to show your personality!
6. Pop that bad boy into the oven for 30-35 minutes or until the jam is bubbly and the edges are a beautiful golden brown.

The first attempt was a complete success! Full of taste and wonder, I don't intend to go another 6 years without making one of these (especially with my pretty new pans) and I want to experiment with the other filling options I've seen around as well. This is my kind of dessert because it's not too sweet and has a ton of texture and flavor!

Bottoms up!

Painted Easter Eggs

I don't like doing anything normally and I take every advantage to show my nerd side! Easter is no different in this situation. I start saving up egg shells long long in advance in anticipation for this exciting time!
I haven't done a big lot of eggs since in a few years so I knew I had to ad on the the lovely ones I'd managed to protect all this time!

Throwback to the originals ! Pokemon was a key subject that year along with Angry Birds! Then of course I had a couple of easy randoms like the Jack Skellington, Pumpkin, the Walnut from Plants Vs. Zombies and Toad from Super Mario!

This year I continued with lovely trends of our time (plus a couple continual obsessions)

 In honor of my favorite droids!

My Yoda wasn't exactly what I wanted... He more so looks like a green Stewie Griffin but he's still pretty cute!

 To continue my true love here are some new pokemon eggs! Jolteon!

And of course Eevee! Hopefully more evolutions to come.

Olaf was definitely one of my randoms this year, no other eggs to associate with Frozen but he was just so easy I couldn't resist!

Now last but certainly not least! My Doctor eggs! <3 to look like the 10th and 11th doctor <3 these make me happy.

Hopefully more to come before the holiday arrives! And perhaps I'll continue after still I have yet to decide! I definitely enjoy it but I only seem to get excited for them before Easter! 

I'm also open to suggestions for anything else in egg form!

Cheers!

Nicole