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At Easter back home we would always have hot cross buns - toasted and with butter on - for breakfast. My mother of course never made them but then they were always easily available at the local bakers! Unfortunately that's not the case here, so if you want to make your own, here is a recipe.

Before you start, you need to know that this is a bread recipe with two rising times - so whilst it doesn't take long to make, you'll need to allow a few hours for resting the dough - so start them in the morning and you will have buns for tea time!

Ingredients

For the buns:

500g Plain flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp Mixed spice (Lebkuchen-gewurz over here)

1 tsp ground nutmeg (Muskatnuss)

1 tsp cinnamon (Zimt)

2 tsps dried yeast (Hefe)

50g light brown sugar

200g Currants (or raisins, or sultantas, anything will do really)

75g Butter (melted and cooled)

1 egg, beaten

225ml hand-hot milk

For the crosses:

50g flour

25g butter, cut into pieces

1 tbsp cold water

To glaze:

3tbsps of milk plus 3tbsp sugar

Method

1. Sieve together the flour and spices in a big bowl and mix in the yeast, sugar and currants.
2. Make a well in the middle and stir in the beaten egg.
3. Mix together the melted butter and milk in a bowl (or a jug works well too) and pour this gradually into the flour, using your hands to bring it together. You may or may not need all the milk mixture - don't overdo it or your dough will be too sticky.
4. When the dough is coming together nicely, turn it out onto a work surface and knead it for at least 10 minutes (this is a long time by the way - put the timer on!) The longer you knead, the finer and lighter the texture of the final buns will be, so don't skimp on this part.
5. Put the kneaded dough back in the bowl, cover it with a clean cloth and leave it in a warm place for about 2 hours until it has doubled in size.
6. When the dough has risen, turn it out again and knead it for a couple of minutes (one or two will do this time). Shape the dough into 12 buns and put them onto a greased baking tray.
7. Cover the buns lightly with clingfilm and leave them to rise again for about 45 minutes. Heat the oven to 220 deg C.
8. For the crosses rub the butter into the flour and then mix it to a dough with the water. Roll this out into a long thin sausage with your fingers and use it to make a cross on each bun.
9. For the glaze heat the sugar with the milk on a very low heat until the sugar is melted and then brush over the tops of the buns.
10. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 15 to 20 minutes. If you want your buns to be sticky on the outside then save a bit of the glaze and brush the buns again as soon as they come out of the oven (when they are still hot).

As I said, we always toasted our buns and spread them with butter but they are also good just warm straight from the oven.