I Have Some Buns in The Oven | Life Love and Hiccups: I Have Some Buns in The Oven
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Tuesday 10 March 2015

I Have Some Buns in The Oven

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Brought to you by Coles

Excuse me whilst I stand on my soap box for a moment and shout to the world…

“I MADE HOT CROSS BUNS”.

Right, well that feels pretty damn good I have to tell you. 

You thought I was going to say something else didn't you?

Nope those buns are done.

You see the thing is – I have never baked any kind of bread or bun or roll in my oven. Oh sure, once upon a time I used to make bread in one of those bread maker machines that you plug into the wall. 

In fact I used to make it regularly until the machine blew up and shorted out all the electronics throughout the whole house.

But I don’t really count that as proper bread making cause, you know, I didn’t need to knead it or let it sit or pretty much do anything to it other than shove everything in it and press on.

I have no idea why I haven’t attempted it before. Maybe it just all seemed too hard or something. That and the fact that I kept forgetting to buy yeast.

Anyway, I am a changed woman now and I have popped by baking cherry and so the past is irrelevant.

 Yep kids (back on my soap box) mama baked you some buns. Hot cross buns no less.

I was inspired by my mate Curtis.

Ha, just a couple of likes on Facebook from my bud Curtis and suddenly we are besties, only he just doesn’t know it yet.

When the March copy of the Coles Magazine landed in my inbox – I spied the Hot Cross bun recipe on page 58 and I emailed the team back and said “I’m doing it you guys. I’m going to attempt to make the hot cross buns. Send Vodka”.

My lovely Coles contact emailed me back and said “Good on you Sonia, you may want to watch this first to be inspired” and she attached a link to this video with Curtis showing us how to make Hot Cross Buns.

They know me well. Hello Curtis!


So anyway, once the kids were deposited at school with the promise of freshly baked hot cross buns for afternoon tea, I headed to Coles to stock up on supplies.

Once loaded up, me and my inner Martha Mudguts legged it home to start the bake-a-thon however when I laid out all the ingredients, I realized that I had forgotten to buy the damn yeast … YES again.

Determined not to use this as (a perfectly acceptable) excuse to back out of the baking, I headed back to the shops to buy some yeast and the baking began.

I used the Coles recipe as a base… with just a few changes. I added in some craisins as well as sultanas, 2 teaspoons of cinnamon because yummmm and I left out the mixed citrus peel because we just don’t do citrus peel in this house.

An hour and a half of resting and into the oven they went.

Thirsty minutes later and walah… I earned my bakers stripes with my first batch of homemade hot cross buns.

OK so they aren’t the prettiest hot cross buns you’ll see and they were slightly undercooked in the middle, but they tasted pretty darn good and besides a couple of randomly places gerberas can pretty up even the oddest of shaped buns.

*Ahem*, confession time.

I did however have a backup plan. You know, just in case everything went ass up.
When I went back to Coles for the yeast, I grabbed myself a pack of their already baked hot cross buns too.

I know, I know…. It was just a backup though in case I totally screwed mine up because I had after all promised the kids freshly baked buns and all that… Oh OK and because maybe I talked myself up too when they questioned my ability to bake hot cross buns and I didn’t want to disappoint them with a flop.

Whatever.

They didn’t flop that badly so I win.

If you really can’t be bothered with the whole baking brouhaha or your buns don’t turn out quite as expected - then fear not  because Coles has some baked for you ‘cheat’s options’. 

You gotta love a cheat’s option, right?

The Coles range of Hot Cross Buns include the chocolate hot cross buns that won silver at the Sydney Royal show as well as White chocolate and Raspberry and Apple & Cinnamon options – all flavours as chosen by the Coles Facebook fans.

This month’s Coles magazine is chocka block (pun intended) full of temptations for those of us with a sweet tooth including chocolate Panna Cotta with Expresso Syrup, Layered Chocolate Mousse Cakes and of course the recipe for the Hot Cross Buns.

The March magazine is free in store now so grab yourself a copy asap or access it on the Coles website or the iPad app.

If you do make something out of the mag then think about sharing it on instagram by tagging your pic with #Colesmag.

Alright, so now I have tackled Hot Cross Buns,
What should I be turning my attention to next?
Any suggestions?
What’s your favourite thing to bake?