South beach, dog friendly Hot Cross Buns
Dogs need to prepare for Easter, as do people on South Beach Diet, and those who are allergic to sugar or raisins.
Here is my Tour de Force all whole wheat, raisin free, minimal sugar Hot Cross Bun. This was distributed to people with dogs, people on a diet, a person who was allergic to raisins and one person who can't tolerate white sugar in quantity. I liked it too. I develop a taste for whole wheat bread while trying to follow the South Beach diet and actually find all white flour breads a little too soft and colorless.
This took half of Saturday and most of Sunday to bake and distribute. The Hot Cross buns left the oven on 3/20/2011. The fruits in this batch are dates, cranberries, orange peel and lemon peel. This recipe made 35 buns, 28 in a half sheet pan, and 7 in a biscuit pan.
I make an absolutely sugarless, fruitless, crossless version of this recipe for diabetic friends. Its a minimalist version of a hot cross bun but it allows diabetics to join in the Lenten celebration.
http://i1044.photobucket.com/albums/b442/skeptic7_photos/P3210011.jpg
http://i1044.photobucket.com/albums/b442/skeptic7_photos/P3210010.jpg
http://i1044.photobucket.com/albums/b442/skeptic7_photos/P3210012.jpg
Whole Wheat Hot Cross buns with honey and fruit, based on a recipe from Laurel's Kitchen Bread book but using the soaker/biga method publicized in Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads. I think I have enough changes in the recipe that I can print it here.
Whole Wheat Hot Cross Buns with honey and fruit
This is the normal recipe for whole wheat hot cross buns as opposed to the sugarless variant.
This recipe has been adapted from the Hot Cross Bun recipe in The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book on page 256-258. The general method used is the soaker/biga developed in Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads, with especial attention to the cinnamon rolls on page 136-139
I think Peter Reinhart's soaker/biga is a little too dry and hard to handle. Mine has more moisture.
Ingredients
Sponge
3 cups King Arthur regular whole wheat flour ( sift before measuring )
1 1/4 cup milk ( scald before measuring, milk should be heated to at least 180 degrees Fahrenheit )
1/4 cup warm water
1 teaspoon yeast
Soaker
3 cups King Arthur regular whole wheat flour ( always sift before measuring )
1 1/2 cup milk ( scalded before measuring and allowed to cool to room temperature )
1 1/2 teaspoon salt.
Dough
2 eggs
2 tbsp orange juice ( optional)
1/2 cup honey
2 cup King Arthur regular whole wheat flour or the rest of flour, there should be 6 cups total
1/2 cup potato flakes
1/2 cup butter
Spices
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon each ginger, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, cardamon
Fruit
2 cups dried fruit.
The doggie safe version was 1/2 cup citrus peel ( 2 tablespoons lemon peel, 6 tablespoons orange peel, and 1 1/2 cups dates and dried cranberries.
I normally take a 2 cup measuring cup and fill it up taking care to have less than 1/4 cup lemon peel.
Other good fruits are apricots, currants, prunes, dried cherries, dried pineapple, and raisins.
1. Making the sponge. Place three cups of flour in a medium bowl. Dissolve the 1 teaspoon yeast in the 1/4 cup warm water. Stir the milk into the flour until most of the lumps are dissolved.
Look at the yeast mixture. The yeast should be totally dissolved and the liquid should be producing small bubbles. If it does not bubble there is something wrong. Either the yeast is dead, or the water was too hot or too cold. The water should feel warm to the touch, but not hot enough to be painful. About 105 degrees Fahrenheit according to some recipes. I use active dry yeast, the other varieties might behave differently. If the yeast mixture does not show signs of life, make another yeast mixture with the correct temperature water or with different yeast.
Mix the yeast into the rest of the dough. This should produce a thick batter. If it is too liquid, some more flour can be added to the sponge. Cover the bowl and let it sit at least until the batter is full of air holes and the yeast is obviously growing. This is probably 2 hours. The sponge can be refrigerated overnight
2. Making the soaker. Mix the salt and three cups of flour together in a small bowl. Stir in the milk. If necessary add a little water. This should be a fairly thick batter but all the flour should be moistened. The soaker allows the wheat bran to soak up liquid and soften, and the rest of the flour undergoes an enzymatic process that produces some sugar from the starch. There needs to be enough liquid available that the flour can absorb the maximum amount. The salt prevents spoilage and this is a good time to add it. Cover the bowl and let sit until the sponge is done. The soaker should rest for at least an hour. The sponge and the soaker should have about the same consistency.
3. Mixing the dough. In a large bowl, beat the two eggs thoroughly. Mix in the honey and orange juice. Mix in the sponge and the soaker. Keep mixing until everything is thoroughly homogenized. I cut the sponge and soaker into chunks with a plastic scraper, stir together, cut into chunks again and stir some more. Keep on blending the soaker and sponge and eggs together into one thick batter. Mix the potato flakes and 1 cup flour together. If you are using dry milk, add it to the flour and potato flakes. Do not add the dry milk separately to the dough. It will clump. Mix the potato and flour mixture into the dough. Add the rest of the flour to the batter and stir together until thoroughly combined. Add a little more water if necessary. Knead lightly with your hands if necessary. Don't stop until all the flour is mixed in as horrible little lumps can develop from dry pockets of flour. Once all the ingredients are combined, then put in a bowl and let sit for at least 15 minutes. During this time the flour absorbs the water in a process called hydration. This resting period makes it easier to knead, and allows the bran in the fresh flour to soften so that the sharp edges of the bran does not tear the gluten strands.
4. Kneading the dough. There are two options. You can either knead the dough throughly now, or let it rise and then knead it throughly. I took the second option this time. Knead the dough making sure there are no dry or moist spots of dough. Add a little flour if the dough is too wet and add a little water if it is too moist. It isn't necessary to knead more than enough to see the dough well mixed at this stage.
Wash and oil the large bowl. Place the dough back in it. At this stage I was tired so I covered the dough with a large plastic bag, fastened and put it in the refrigerator and left it overnight. The whole wheat dough is fragile and could over rise and over ferment and wreck the gluten if allowed to rise too long in a warm environment.
If you don't need a rest, let the dough rise till nearly double about an hour. I have the bowl normally in a very large cake carrier with cool water to let it rise without drying out. The cake carrier is upside down with about 1/4 full of water. The mixing bowl fits inside the cake carrier sitting in the water and the lid goes on top.
Punch down the dough and let it rise again. If the dough had been refrigerated this is the stage where it rejoins the process. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and punch it down. Let it rise until nearly double again. This is a good time to take the butter out of the freezer or refrigerator.
5. Kneading the dough and mixing in the butter.
The two rises actually develop the gluten so it doesn't need too much more kneading. I knead the dough on my largest cutting board or a plastic sheet for rolling out pie crusts. Knead until all the dough is homogenized with no dry or wet patches and the dough is bouncy when hit and tends to stick together. Try pulling the dough slowly apart to form a window pane. This is one of the indications that the gluten is sufficiently developed.
I am following the philosophy in Laurel's Kitchen Bread book of kneading well to have a strong fine grain bread which will rise well. The trendy no/little kneading school is for wetter artisan breads not an egg milk butter loaded bread. Once the dough has been kneaded enough place it in the clean mixing bowl and let rest.
If the butter is still hard, cut into small pieces and then rub a couple of tablespoons onto the kneading board. If the butter is at room temperature, rub a couple of tablespoons onto the cutting board. Turn the dough out onto the cutting board and knead until the butter is incorporated in the dough. Repeat the process until there is only a tablespoon of butter left. Smear the remaining butter onto the cutting board, and pat the dough, which should be soft, into a large rectangle.
6. Prepare the fruit. Cut up the lemon and orange peel. Put all the fruit into a small bowl and mix together.
5. Mixing the spices. Mix the cinnamon, cardamon, white pepper, allspice, nutmeg and cloves. Put this in a small container and set aside.
-- Note: The spices can be mixed in the dough, but in this instance I added 3 tablespoon of white sugar to the spices and then rolled the hot cross buns in it before baking.
Spread half the fruit mixture on the dough. Fold the dough into thirds and then pat into another rectangle. Spread the rest of the fruit mixture on the dough and roll it up like a cinnamon roll. If you want to the spices can be added to the dough at this time too. Knead the dough until the butter and the fruit/spices is thoroughly incorporated.
The spices are added last or not added at all since they interfere with the gluten development.
Let the dough sit for 15 minutes or so to relax the gluten and make it easier to handle. This recipe produced 4 5/8 lbs of dough
7. Shaping the dough. Divide the dough into 36 pieces and form into balls. Roll the balls lightly in the cinnamon spice mixture. Place in pans. This made 28 in a half sheet pan with 7 left over. One of the balls came out so small I just incorporated into two other buns. Let rise until light and fluffy. In cold temperatures this takes overnight. I place my pans in a dedicated under the bed storage container and let it rise there with pans of warm water under the sheet pan.
8. Baking. Check the oven for stray pans and other objects -- don't ask why this is in the directions. Preheat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake for 15-20 minutes until brown.
Note: I had excess milk so I used it. 1 cup milk and the rest water will work for this recipe.
I have also used 3 cups water and 1/3 cup baker's dried milk. The dried milk goes in with the dough ingredients.
Bibliography:
Sher, Gail From A Baker's Kitchen, Harris Publishing Company Inc; Berkeley, Ca 94710; 1984
Reinhart, Peter Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads 10 Speed Press; Berkeley, Ca 94707 2007
Robertson,Laurel; Flinders, Carol; and Bronwen, Godfrey The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book Random House; New York 1984
Sands, Brinna King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook Countryman Press; Woodstock, Vermont 1992
Here is my Tour de Force all whole wheat, raisin free, minimal sugar Hot Cross Bun. This was distributed to people with dogs, people on a diet, a person who was allergic to raisins and one person who can't tolerate white sugar in quantity. I liked it too. I develop a taste for whole wheat bread while trying to follow the South Beach diet and actually find all white flour breads a little too soft and colorless.
This took half of Saturday and most of Sunday to bake and distribute. The Hot Cross buns left the oven on 3/20/2011. The fruits in this batch are dates, cranberries, orange peel and lemon peel. This recipe made 35 buns, 28 in a half sheet pan, and 7 in a biscuit pan.
I make an absolutely sugarless, fruitless, crossless version of this recipe for diabetic friends. Its a minimalist version of a hot cross bun but it allows diabetics to join in the Lenten celebration.
http://i1044.photobucket.com/albums/b442/skeptic7_photos/P3210011.jpg
http://i1044.photobucket.com/albums/b442/skeptic7_photos/P3210010.jpg
http://i1044.photobucket.com/albums/b442/skeptic7_photos/P3210012.jpg
Whole Wheat Hot Cross buns with honey and fruit, based on a recipe from Laurel's Kitchen Bread book but using the soaker/biga method publicized in Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads. I think I have enough changes in the recipe that I can print it here.
Whole Wheat Hot Cross Buns with honey and fruit
This is the normal recipe for whole wheat hot cross buns as opposed to the sugarless variant.
This recipe has been adapted from the Hot Cross Bun recipe in The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book on page 256-258. The general method used is the soaker/biga developed in Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads, with especial attention to the cinnamon rolls on page 136-139
I think Peter Reinhart's soaker/biga is a little too dry and hard to handle. Mine has more moisture.
Ingredients
Sponge
3 cups King Arthur regular whole wheat flour ( sift before measuring )
1 1/4 cup milk ( scald before measuring, milk should be heated to at least 180 degrees Fahrenheit )
1/4 cup warm water
1 teaspoon yeast
Soaker
3 cups King Arthur regular whole wheat flour ( always sift before measuring )
1 1/2 cup milk ( scalded before measuring and allowed to cool to room temperature )
1 1/2 teaspoon salt.
Dough
2 eggs
2 tbsp orange juice ( optional)
1/2 cup honey
2 cup King Arthur regular whole wheat flour or the rest of flour, there should be 6 cups total
1/2 cup potato flakes
1/2 cup butter
Spices
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon each ginger, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, cardamon
Fruit
2 cups dried fruit.
The doggie safe version was 1/2 cup citrus peel ( 2 tablespoons lemon peel, 6 tablespoons orange peel, and 1 1/2 cups dates and dried cranberries.
I normally take a 2 cup measuring cup and fill it up taking care to have less than 1/4 cup lemon peel.
Other good fruits are apricots, currants, prunes, dried cherries, dried pineapple, and raisins.
1. Making the sponge. Place three cups of flour in a medium bowl. Dissolve the 1 teaspoon yeast in the 1/4 cup warm water. Stir the milk into the flour until most of the lumps are dissolved.
Look at the yeast mixture. The yeast should be totally dissolved and the liquid should be producing small bubbles. If it does not bubble there is something wrong. Either the yeast is dead, or the water was too hot or too cold. The water should feel warm to the touch, but not hot enough to be painful. About 105 degrees Fahrenheit according to some recipes. I use active dry yeast, the other varieties might behave differently. If the yeast mixture does not show signs of life, make another yeast mixture with the correct temperature water or with different yeast.
Mix the yeast into the rest of the dough. This should produce a thick batter. If it is too liquid, some more flour can be added to the sponge. Cover the bowl and let it sit at least until the batter is full of air holes and the yeast is obviously growing. This is probably 2 hours. The sponge can be refrigerated overnight
2. Making the soaker. Mix the salt and three cups of flour together in a small bowl. Stir in the milk. If necessary add a little water. This should be a fairly thick batter but all the flour should be moistened. The soaker allows the wheat bran to soak up liquid and soften, and the rest of the flour undergoes an enzymatic process that produces some sugar from the starch. There needs to be enough liquid available that the flour can absorb the maximum amount. The salt prevents spoilage and this is a good time to add it. Cover the bowl and let sit until the sponge is done. The soaker should rest for at least an hour. The sponge and the soaker should have about the same consistency.
3. Mixing the dough. In a large bowl, beat the two eggs thoroughly. Mix in the honey and orange juice. Mix in the sponge and the soaker. Keep mixing until everything is thoroughly homogenized. I cut the sponge and soaker into chunks with a plastic scraper, stir together, cut into chunks again and stir some more. Keep on blending the soaker and sponge and eggs together into one thick batter. Mix the potato flakes and 1 cup flour together. If you are using dry milk, add it to the flour and potato flakes. Do not add the dry milk separately to the dough. It will clump. Mix the potato and flour mixture into the dough. Add the rest of the flour to the batter and stir together until thoroughly combined. Add a little more water if necessary. Knead lightly with your hands if necessary. Don't stop until all the flour is mixed in as horrible little lumps can develop from dry pockets of flour. Once all the ingredients are combined, then put in a bowl and let sit for at least 15 minutes. During this time the flour absorbs the water in a process called hydration. This resting period makes it easier to knead, and allows the bran in the fresh flour to soften so that the sharp edges of the bran does not tear the gluten strands.
4. Kneading the dough. There are two options. You can either knead the dough throughly now, or let it rise and then knead it throughly. I took the second option this time. Knead the dough making sure there are no dry or moist spots of dough. Add a little flour if the dough is too wet and add a little water if it is too moist. It isn't necessary to knead more than enough to see the dough well mixed at this stage.
Wash and oil the large bowl. Place the dough back in it. At this stage I was tired so I covered the dough with a large plastic bag, fastened and put it in the refrigerator and left it overnight. The whole wheat dough is fragile and could over rise and over ferment and wreck the gluten if allowed to rise too long in a warm environment.
If you don't need a rest, let the dough rise till nearly double about an hour. I have the bowl normally in a very large cake carrier with cool water to let it rise without drying out. The cake carrier is upside down with about 1/4 full of water. The mixing bowl fits inside the cake carrier sitting in the water and the lid goes on top.
Punch down the dough and let it rise again. If the dough had been refrigerated this is the stage where it rejoins the process. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and punch it down. Let it rise until nearly double again. This is a good time to take the butter out of the freezer or refrigerator.
5. Kneading the dough and mixing in the butter.
The two rises actually develop the gluten so it doesn't need too much more kneading. I knead the dough on my largest cutting board or a plastic sheet for rolling out pie crusts. Knead until all the dough is homogenized with no dry or wet patches and the dough is bouncy when hit and tends to stick together. Try pulling the dough slowly apart to form a window pane. This is one of the indications that the gluten is sufficiently developed.
I am following the philosophy in Laurel's Kitchen Bread book of kneading well to have a strong fine grain bread which will rise well. The trendy no/little kneading school is for wetter artisan breads not an egg milk butter loaded bread. Once the dough has been kneaded enough place it in the clean mixing bowl and let rest.
If the butter is still hard, cut into small pieces and then rub a couple of tablespoons onto the kneading board. If the butter is at room temperature, rub a couple of tablespoons onto the cutting board. Turn the dough out onto the cutting board and knead until the butter is incorporated in the dough. Repeat the process until there is only a tablespoon of butter left. Smear the remaining butter onto the cutting board, and pat the dough, which should be soft, into a large rectangle.
6. Prepare the fruit. Cut up the lemon and orange peel. Put all the fruit into a small bowl and mix together.
5. Mixing the spices. Mix the cinnamon, cardamon, white pepper, allspice, nutmeg and cloves. Put this in a small container and set aside.
-- Note: The spices can be mixed in the dough, but in this instance I added 3 tablespoon of white sugar to the spices and then rolled the hot cross buns in it before baking.
Spread half the fruit mixture on the dough. Fold the dough into thirds and then pat into another rectangle. Spread the rest of the fruit mixture on the dough and roll it up like a cinnamon roll. If you want to the spices can be added to the dough at this time too. Knead the dough until the butter and the fruit/spices is thoroughly incorporated.
The spices are added last or not added at all since they interfere with the gluten development.
Let the dough sit for 15 minutes or so to relax the gluten and make it easier to handle. This recipe produced 4 5/8 lbs of dough
7. Shaping the dough. Divide the dough into 36 pieces and form into balls. Roll the balls lightly in the cinnamon spice mixture. Place in pans. This made 28 in a half sheet pan with 7 left over. One of the balls came out so small I just incorporated into two other buns. Let rise until light and fluffy. In cold temperatures this takes overnight. I place my pans in a dedicated under the bed storage container and let it rise there with pans of warm water under the sheet pan.
8. Baking. Check the oven for stray pans and other objects -- don't ask why this is in the directions. Preheat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake for 15-20 minutes until brown.
Note: I had excess milk so I used it. 1 cup milk and the rest water will work for this recipe.
I have also used 3 cups water and 1/3 cup baker's dried milk. The dried milk goes in with the dough ingredients.
Bibliography:
Sher, Gail From A Baker's Kitchen, Harris Publishing Company Inc; Berkeley, Ca 94710; 1984
Reinhart, Peter Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads 10 Speed Press; Berkeley, Ca 94707 2007
Robertson,Laurel; Flinders, Carol; and Bronwen, Godfrey The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book Random House; New York 1984
Sands, Brinna King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook Countryman Press; Woodstock, Vermont 1992