I know it’s a little early- if you are following the church calendar,
but I haven’t baked anything recently and that is very hard on my feeling
of well being. ( So is sciatica, but this is on a different level of pain.)
I need to have some dough raising somewhere to make me feel whole.
And these made me feel a whole lot better! 
I really didn’t follow a recipe-
I boiled a small potato, mashed it up and added 1-2 tsps of yeast when the water
cooled sufficiently. Then I added 1/2 cup sugar and stirred it up and let the whole pan
rest to proof the yeast.
I added enough flour ( 3 to 5 cups) to get a stiff dough, 1 tsp of salt, and 1 tsp of cinnamon
and 1/2 cup soft butter and kneaded it all together.
I chopped up a slice or two of crystallized ginger and cup currants
and added them at the end of the kneading process, so they were incorporated in the dough.
Then- I went to the couch to rest my sore leg and back for about an hour or so.
(After putting the dough in an oiled bowl and covering it.)
Then after the dough was almost doubled in size, I rolled it into small balls of uniform
size and placed them in a round cake pan. Allowing it to raise for another hour and a half-
and then baked them at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes.
Then I let them cool and mixed up some icing
sugar and half an half and drizzled crosses on each bun.
Delicious and perfect for both the tummy and the soul!
Hot Cross Buns!
You make the best!
Yum Heidi! My second trial of hot cross buns came out of the oven this morning.
I hope your sciatica is easing off a little.
Thanks Cynthia- you know I really make them for you! Glad you could come over and enjoy!
Brydie- I love the community of hot cross bun makers across the world!
The sciatica is slowly easing up- I’ve been faithful in stretching and resting, icing and heat- it still gets really bad overnight so I’m not sleeping well. But it is nice to see the light at the end of this particular 🙂 tunnel.
Heidi, I’ve never seen a HXB recipe with mashed potato in it before! Yours look perfectly delicate and light, and I love the speckle of cinnamon through them! Hope you’re on the mend… xxx
Hi Celia,
I am doing so much better. But am up at 2 AM because it really hurts to lay still. 🙁
My oldest recipe for HXB always had mashed potato –
it adds an underlying flavor that I like. They turned out very good- I really hate it when I can’t bake so this was pure pleasure!
What perfect mounds of buns! I haven’t made any yet – I must pull my socks up!
The magic of potato! Did you know that the old way of making bread used to always use potato and potato water at one of the stages of getting the yeast working? I bet you did… I think it adds keeping qualities and softness to the dough. There is a lovely recipe for a bread that Dan Lepard calls a ‘stottie’ a northern english potato bread, half way between a flat bread and a huge bap type roll that used cooked potato. I made them with a friend on a baking event weekend to feed the entire crew for lunch. They are very hearty and substantial. Celia has made a version of them and blogged them here. I must make them again one day. http://figjamandlimecordial.com/2009/09/21/flatbread/
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