Hot Cross Muffins

One of my favourite things about Easter is hot cross buns. These hot cross muffins are a delicious take on the classic bun, but also a lot quicker and easier to make.

They freeze well, so make some this week, well in time for the Easter weekend.

Just glaze the muffins, and pipe on the crosses when you defrost them.

To make the cross, I’ve gone for an easy option - using icing sugar and an egg white mixed to a thick paste, and then piped onto the cooked muffins. You could also pipe the crosses using melted white chocolate.

Ingredients

Muffins

• 150g dried cranberries
• 150 sultanas
• 375g SR flour
• 200g sugar
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp mixed spice
• 165ml vegetable oil
• 250ml buttermilk
• 2 eggs

Glaze

• 1/2 cup apricot jam

Icing for the crosses

• 1 x egg white
• soft icing sugar, sifted
• lemon juice

Method

Muffins

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line muffin tray with paper cases.
2. Soak the dried fruit in just enough boiling water to cover for 10 minutes. Drain well and pat dry with paper towel.
3. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, bicarb soda and spices. Give a good whisk together with a balloon whisk.
4. Stir in the the fruit.
5. Whisk together the oil, buttermilk and eggs.
6. Combine the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients together  with a large spoon or spatula, without over - mixing.
7. Remember this is not a smooth cake mix, about 14 turns of the spoon should have the mixture combined.
8. Spoon into the prepared muffin cases, and bake for 12-15 minutes for the smaller muffins, and 20-25 minutes for large muffins. They should be lightly browned and a skewer inserted into the centre will come out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

For the glaze

9. Melt apricot jam in the microwave on HIGH for 1 minute. Brush onto the cooled muffins and allow to set before piping on the crosses.

For the icing crosses

10. Place the eggwhite and a splash of lemon juice into a bowl, and start adding sifted icing sugar, while whisking with a balloon whisk or hand-held mixer, until you have a thick, pipable icing. Spoon into a disposable piping bag or small ziplock bag. Snip a tiny corner off the bag and pipe on the crosses.

Notes

I’ve added some toasted, flaked almonds to the base of each paper case for extra texture. This is optional.