Make Easter even sweeter with these cute treats!
Bring the Easter bunny into your home early this year, by whipping up a batch of these delicious hot cross bunnies. Featuring brioche-style dough studded with delicious fruit, they taste as good as they look – happy Easter, one and all!
Makes: 12 bunnies
Ingredients
For the bunnies
- 225g milk
- 5g instant yeast
- 585g plain flour
- 65g caster sugar
- 10g fine salt
- 10g mixed spice
- 145g unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes
- 3 Yallamundi Farm Extra-Large Pasture-Raised eggs
- 250g dried fruit – a mixture of sultanas, currants and raisins
- 50g mixed peel
To make the the egg wash
- 1 Yallamundi Farm Extra-Large Pasture-Raised egg
- Splash of milk
For the cross
- 50g plain flour
- 25g self-raising flour
- Pinch of salt
- Pinch of sugar
- 65-75g water
- 15g oil
For the brown sugar glaze
- 50g brown sugar
- 50g water
- 1 cinnamon quill
Method
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To make the hot cross bunny dough, heat the milk in a small saucepan over low heat until lukewarm. Add in the yeast and stir to combine. Set aside.
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In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the flour, sugar, salt, mixed spice and butter cubes and mix until the butter cubes are well coated with the dry ingredients. Make a well in the centre and add the eggs, milk and yeast mixture. Using a dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until the mixture is roughly combined, then increase speed to medium and mix until the butter is fully incorporated and the dough is soft and has started to pull away from the sides of the bowl. This should take around 5 minutes.
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Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl, then increase the speed to medium/high and knead for another 5 minutes, or until the dough comes cleanly away from the sides of the bowl and is gathering around the hook.
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Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and flatten slightly. Scatter over the dried fruit and mixed peel and knead in by hand until well incorporated. Gather the dough into a ball, dust lightly with flour and place in a clean, medium-sized bowl. Cover with a tea towel and set aside until the dough has grown by 50% (around 1-1 ½ hours), after which place the bowl into the refrigerator for four hours or until the dough is completely chilled.
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Remove the dough from the refrigerator and tip out onto a lightly dusted surface. Gently flatten and press the dough into a square. Cut the dough into 16 roughly equal-sized squares. Set the corners aside and roll the remaining 12 squares into balls.
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Line two large baking trays with baking paper. Cut the corner dough squares into three strips each, to become the hot cross bunny ears. Twist each strip slightly, pinch the ends and place in sets of two, set slightly apart on the baking tray. Place one ball of dough between the two ears, covering the ends, and press down gently. Repeat with the remaining dough, making 12 bunnies in all.
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Turn the oven to 200°C to preheat. Cover the trays with a tea towel and allow the bunnies to rise for another 40-50 minutes, until they have expanded around 50% in size.
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While the bunnies are proving, make the egg wash, cross mixture and brown sugar glaze.
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To make the egg wash, whisk together the additional egg and splash of milk until incorporated.
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To make the cross mixture, in a separate bowl whisk together the additional flour, self-raising flour, salt, sugar, water and oil – the mixture should be thick but pipable. Place the cross mixture into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle.
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Once the bunnies have grown by 50%, brush lightly all over with the egg wash. Pipe whisker crosses and eyes on each bunny, or decorate however you wish, and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Rotate the trays, then bake for another 5 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from the oven and brush with the brown sugar glaze.
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Serve warm or at room temperature on the day of baking, or lightly toasted in the days to come.
