One of the foods that was a staple of Easter for our family was Hot Cross Buns - my Grandmother Hill made them, my Mom made them, and now, finally - it's my turn.
And by "my" - he quickly added - I mean "we," as in my lovely wife Jeanette and I.
It started with a run to the grocery store to pick up the ingredients, which is always a joy on Easter weekend - I imagine a Demolition Derby would involve less violence.
We found everything except one crucial ingredient - Candied Peel. We looked and looked and couldn't find it. (And Jeanette is a champion finder - even she was stumped.)
She finally said, "No problem - we'll just make our own." She looked up the recipe on her iPhone, we picked up a couple of oranges, and we were off. (She's a wonder! I definitely married above my station.)
Jeanette cooked up the candied peel (which took a bit of time and effort), and I have to admit - it's tasty stuff! I leave it to you to look up the recipe online, dear reader - but here's what it looked like cooking in the pot:
At this point let me pause to post the recipe, which is labeled "English Recipe - April 11, 1974" (so it was written down almost exactly 43 years ago):
Here are the directions:
Ingredients:
6 1/2 cups of flour
1/2 cup of Crisco
1/4 cup margarine
1/2 cup of sugar
1 1/2 tsp of salt
3/4 cup of raisins or currants
1/4 cup of candied peel chopped up fine
2 eggs beaten up
1 1/2 cup of warm milk
Dissolve three cakes of yeast or three packets in a bowl in 1 cup of lukewarm water. Let stand until it rises - about 30 minutes.
Rub shortening into flour until it's like meal. Mix in salt and sugar. Then add raisins and peel. Mix well.
Make a well in the center and pour in the yeast, eggs and milk. Mix by hand to a smooth dough - but don't knead. Place in a warm greased bowl, cover with a towel and let stand to rise for 1 hour.
Then take out the bowl and cut off in small pieces (about the size of an egg). Mold into a ball and flatten a little. Make a cross across the top with a knife. Place on a greased cookie sheet, paint buns with beaten egg white wash, and sprinkle a little sugar on top. Let stand to raise about 30 minutes, then bake in a preheated oven at 370 degrees or 400 degrees for 15 or 20 minutes.
Jeanette and I tackled the job as a team because we were running short of time - we wanted to get a batch ready for today's dinner at her Mom's house. It takes some time to bring all the ingredients together (and wait for them to rise as needed), so we were racing the clock.
We made one change to the recipe - neither one of us cares much for raisins, so we left that bit out. The sharp-eyed among you may also notice that there's no mention in the directions of what to do with the butter. (The other two direction cards offer no guidance here, either.)
Even with that, the finished rolls were mighty tasty (though I probably should have browned them just a bit longer).
But they were very tasty - the orange gives them a great flavor. The smell alone was wonderful - it brought back memories of past Easter family gatherings, and happy times.
Oh, and I applied butter before I ate them - so maybe that's the answer to the mystery.
(And thanks again to Jeanette for holding my hand through this holiday challenge!)
