Hot Cross Buns

The Lakeland catalogue came through my letterbox the other day. I find it best not to look in it because I know that I will be tempted by their lovely stuff and then once I've got started I have to find enough stuff to get free p&p and before I know what happened I'm placing another £50 order! However, the envelope it came in had a plastic window so I had to open the envelope to remove the window before I could drop it into the recycling. Once open, of course, I had to have a quick flick. Oh dear... where's my credit card...

Anyway, next to a listing for a square baking tin (phew... I have one of those already so I'm OK) was a recipe for hot cross buns http://www.lakeland.co.uk/090326-hotcrossbuns?src=email&email=090326eastereditorial

Now, when you come across a recipe for something that is readily available in the shops you have to ask yourself exactly why you should put in the effort to make it instead of just buying it. Sometimes it is a matter of cost - after all when you can make flapjacks for 6p each why spend 99p on a box of 6? Sometimes it is a matter of flavour - what do they put into cakes to make them taste so weird? Sometimes it is to have control over the ingredients and sometimes it is a combination of several things.

With hot cross buns, the only reason I could see for trying them was to shear challenge of it. So I've just given it a go. It is certainly one of those recipes you need to do when you are going to be in the house with other things to be getting on with. There is a good deal of rising and resting involved. But, what do you know, they came out looking like proper hot cross buns. I'm proud of my buns!