Psychedelic Hot Cross buns

                                                                                                                           by the Konstant Kraver

Good Friday is coming up so I thought to myself "What fun take can I do on the traditional hot cross buns"?.I adapted a fabulous recipe that I got from the blog Not Quite Nigella. I substituted M&M's instead of raisins or chocolate chips, added a bit of all-spice and the glaze was made with coloured, white chocolate...Yum!

The result fun, colourful and very very chocolatey, they do taste sooooo good. I have to admit, though that initially I thought some traditions should be left alone, but this blog is all about experimentation and I would have been thinking about it for weeks if I had not tried it out. However once I got over the previous day’s chocolate overload, because while I was baking I must confess, not all the M&M's ended up in the recipe, and when I sank my teeth into one of those buns it was a beautiful, moist and massive, chocolate hit. Here before you I give you my  Psychedelic Hot Cross Buns.

 

For the buns

•  2 tablespoons instant dried yeast (roughly 14g)
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1.5 cups lukewarm milk
•  4.5 cups plain flour 
•    1 teaspoon salt
•   50g butter melted
•  1 egg lightly beaten
•  1 teaspoon cinnamon 
•     ½ teaspoon All Spice
•   1.5 Cups Crispy M&M’s

For White Chocolate pink glaze

•   2oz White chocolate
•    4 Tbsp milk
•   ½ teaspoon pink food colouring

For crosses:

•   2.5 ozs white chocolate

Method

1. Mix yeast, sugar and warm milk in a bowl and stir to remove any lumps. Set aside for 15 minutes until it becomes frothy.

2. In a large bowl, or the bowl of your mixer, sift flour and salt. Make a well in the centre and mix in the yeast mixture, butter, egg, spices and one third of the M&M’s.(Don’t panic the colours will run...that just adds to the nice swirly effect)

3. Knead dough for 5 minutes until elastic and place in a greased bowl covered with cling wrap in a warm area (I put mine near a heater) . Leave for 1 hour to 1.5 hours until doubled in size.

4. Using your fist, punch down the dough and add the remaining cinnamon chocolate chips. Knead lightly and divide into 16 balls. Place close together on a lined or greased baking tray. Cover with cling wrap and allow to rise in a warm place for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F.

5. Bake for 20-30 minutes until done. While it is baking, get the glaze ready. For the glaze, simply melt the white chocolate and mix in the mik and food colouring together shortly before the time is up on the buns. (You may need to add more milk).

6. When buns are ready, brush with glaze.

7. Melt more chocolate in a microwave proof bowl and spoon into a piping bag fitted with a small plain nozzle. Pipe lines across buns to make crosses. When chocolate has set, serve