With easter on the way, I've been thinking about trying my hand at sourdough hot cross buns. It's my first ever attempt at any buns, let alone sourdough, but inspired by these threads

https://sourdough.com/recipes/one-penny-two-penny

http://sourdough.com/recipes/sourdough-hot-cross-buns#comment-9150

I thought I'd give it a go.

I settled on SourDom's recipe:

Starter

340g (soy) milk

250g strong white flour

1 tsp starter



Leave for ~12 hours



Soak 250g dried fruit (currants, raisins, candied peel) in boiling water, and leave for 12 hours



Dough

200g strong white flour

50g wholemeal flour

7g salt

75g brown sugar

1/2 tsp allspice, 1/2 tsp gr ginger, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1tsp cinnamon

75g margarine/butter

melt the margarine and mix into the dry ingredients

add starter and fruit



Mix/knead briefly, leave for 10 minutes

repeat,

Bulk for 3-4 hours, with folds every hour



Divide into 14 x 90g (~12 x 100g), shape

Put in fridge overnight



The next morning

make piping mix

5g olive oil

25g water

23g flour



Brush tops of buns with (soy) milk

Pipe on crosses



Bake at ~200C for ~25 mins



Make sugar syrup

25g caster sugar

25g water

simmer in saucepan until dissolved, and then a minute or two



Glaze warm buns with sugar syrup after they come out of the oven.

For the preferment, I didn't quite trust my standard white starter to have anough strength in just a teaspoon, so I used 60g starter, mixed in with 310g milk and 220g white flour (Defiance Baker's flour). Overnight it didn't seem to bulk up as much as usual, perhaps it was the milk?

But poking it with a fork showed a lot of bubbles. It had a lovely fruity, yeasty smell so I thought I'd give it a go.

It mixed up to quite a sticky dough, the amount of fat in it made it easier to handle though. My shaping left a bit to be desired but packing the buns into a high-sided tin pretty well held them in shape.

I left them to prove for 2 1/2 hours on the bench then milk washed and piped the crosses on

Baked at 200C for 35 minutes. The finished product were beautifully moist and chewy, with the right density and plenty of flavour. I'll be making a few more batches of these over the next few weeks!

I'll try for a crumb shot tomorrow morning when I have one for breakfast :)