Cranberry and Lady Grey Hot Cross Buns (in the bread maker)

Resurrecting this blog for my yearly Easter hot cross buns recipe! This year I chose a tea-infused bun with mixed peel, cranberries, and mixed raisins. My dried fruit was quite old and needed using up, so I soaked them in hot (just boiled) water for 20 minutes before draining them. Whereas for last years buns I did the Delia Smith method of cutting strips of dough and placing them on top for the crosses, this year I made a smooth dough mixture and piped it on. It turned out really well, so I definitely recommend piping them on if you can.

Spicy Cajun Plait

Definitely one for the weekend this as it does take a few hours to make (although actual time in which you actively need to do anything is much shorter). I made this in my bread maker but its reasonably straightforward to make dough without one so I've included alternative instructions for making it by a hand. We ate this still warm from the oven, dipping it in salsa and sour cream dips, and slathering it with cream cheese. It was awesome.

Wholemeal Bread Machine Bagels

It is no exaggeration to say that when I bought my bread maker 4 years ago, it revolutionised my life. No. Exaggeration. Seriously. This bagel recipe is very simple, and borrows heavily from this BBC recipe; the only modification I made was that I made these wholemeal rather than plain. The use of a bread machine also greatly simplifies things as it will do most of the hard work. If you don't have a bread making machine, I'd suggesting heading over to the BBC recipe and following those instructions instead. I always thought bagels would be too 'hard' or difficult to make, since they are briefly boiled before oven baked, but in fact I found them incredibly easy to make (though yes, they take a bit more time). These were not quite as dense as I like bagels, so I've reduced the quantity of water slightly in this recipe (from 300ml to 275ml).

If you aren't eating them all at once, they can be frozen. I recommend this highly as they lose their freshness pretty quickly if left out for a day or two; if frozen you get that 'just baked' taste every time.