this is going to be a bit of a wordy one so hang in there!! over Easter i really wanted to have a go at hot cross buns, gf df anything is hard to find at the best of times, so there are some things that you just tend to miss out on. this was our first Easter with two gf children. we managed to find hot cross buns, but i still wanted to have a go working with yeast and gluten free flour. i thought that yeast didn’t really work with gf flour but i had never actually tried.
so anyway over two separate cooks i gave it a go and as far as my captive audience went they were both a winner.
I took the recipe from Issue #2 2020 of the Food magazine that you get from countdown, and altered it to suit.
hot cross buns basic recipe…
- 1 tablespoon dried yeast
- 1/4 c caster sugar
- 1 1/2 cups milk warm – almond milk for us
- 4 cups of plain flour – we used the bakels brand as edmonds was out of stock
- 2 teaspoons mixed spice
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 60g butter, room temperature – we used Oliviani
- 1 egg
right so this is the basic ingredients list for the bread dough, with our alterations. i’ll give you the method, then tell you about our experiments
combine the yeast, sugar and warm milk – be careful not to heat the milk too much as it will kill the yeast. you should be able to just feel the warmth when you stick your finger in it. pop a tea towel over it and leave it on the bench to froth up.
while that’s happening, put your flour and spices in a bowl together and pop the oliviani in the flour and use your fingers to gently rub it in. by now your yeast should have risen, it will smell all yeasty and be high in your jug. pour it all into the flour and butter and give it a good mix. this is quite a wet mix so it will be quite sticky. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave to rise for about 45 minutes.
ok so these guys are not particularly attractive, but i was quite pleased with my first go. this lot didn’t rise very much at all, in fact neither of them rose a lot but this one the least. I only gave it a quick stir before leaving it to rise and i left it in a sunny spot but it didn’t seam to want to do anything. i have come to the conclusion that that is the case when using gluten free flour, but please let me know if you have had different experiences.
anyway, to continue this was supposed to have raisins soaked in rum, but we couldn’t get either in lock down, so I soaked my cup of saltanas in some water and brandy essence in a bowl for an hour.
turn the dough out onto a floured bench and and give it a knead, then roll it out into a rectangle shape, add some extra flour if needed, as it is quite sticky, it should be about half a cm thick. sprinkle with some brown sugar, your sultana’s drained of any remaining liquid and some chopped up pecans and dark chocolate.
then from the long side roll the dough up trying to keep the shape quite tight. cut in half, then the halves in half, then cut four or five rounds out of each quarter. put all the parts cut side down into a lined pan. it doesn’t matter if they are close to each other. leave to rest and rise a little while your oven heats up. 190oc on bake, or I made mine in the top of the BBQ with the lid down.
while the baking is all going on, mix together 1 1/2c brown sugar, 3/4 dark rum or water and brandy essence and 60g of oliviani and melt in a pan. Drizzle this over the scrolls when they are finished baking.
when the scrolls have stood for five minutes, if you can keep people off them for that long, drizzle with an icing of 1 cup of icing sugar and 1 1/2 tablespoons of boiling water.
So yeah it was a bit of a process, definitely a weekend project. everyone loved them but they were a bit sweet overall, even for me. maybe that is because you don’t have that glutenous texture to bulk out the sweetness.
these were the next ones i tried, and man oh man were they delicious!! also i found the portrait function on my phone so they look equally delicious in the picture!! I used the same base recipe but i turned this one out and kneaded it a little bit before letting it rest. this was a mission as the dough was very sticky but the results were interesting. it didn’t rise heaps but the texture was noticeably different. you could feel the air in the dough.
so what did i do? after leaving the dough to rise, i chopped up some dark chocolate and knead the chocolate into the dough, then take small bits and roll them into balls, pop them onto a lined tray. let them rise while the over heats up 190oc. bake for 10 minutes.
when they are done toss them in a bowl of caster sugar and cinnamon.
these guys were lite and fluffy even when cold, and they were gone by dinner time!!
so yes yeast does work with gluten flour. it will be interesting to make some different recipes and see if they are as successful.
I’d love to hear about your success’s and failures, so please feel free to comment!!
three boys kitchen 