I'm not big on Easter. My family never did egg hunts (I don't even know if they are called egg hunts?) or made coloured eggs or anything like that. I am a fan of hot cross buns, though, if I manage to forget about my time working at a bakery during Easter standing outside the shop yelling "hot cross buns, get your hot cross buns". Having a chocolate hot cross bun, fresh out of the oven, pressed into my hands by a baker for my morning tea was something special though.

This year I decided to try making my own, and who else would I turn to but Nigella?

Nigella Lawson's Hot Cross Buns

from Feast

You will need:

• 150ml milk
• 50g butter
• zest from one orange
• 2 whole cloves
• 400g plain flour
• 1 8g packet instant dry yeast
• 125g mixed dried fruit (including dried cranberries, dried blueberries, and sultanas)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 2 eggs
• 3 tbsp plain flour
• 1/2 tbsp white sugar
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp white sugar
• 1 tbsp boiling water

Directions:

1. heat the milk, butter, zest and cloves in a small saucepan just until the butter melts then turn heat off.
2. measure the 400g flour, yeast, dried fruit and spices into a bowl.
3. by now the butter-milk mixture will have cooled, beat one egg into the saucepan. Remove cloves.
4. pour liquid into bowl of dry ingredients. Mix together with a wooden spoon.
5. knead the dough with your hands until elastic.
6. form into ball and place in a buttered bowl. Cover bowl with gladwrap and refrigerate overnight.
7. the next day, take the dough out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature.
8. punch the dough down, and knead again until smooth and elastic.
9. half the dough so that you have two pieces, then half those pieces so you have four pieces and so on until you get 16 clumps of dough of roughly even size.
10. form the clumps of dough into smooth round balls and place on an oven try lined with baking paper, close to each other but not touching.
11. scour the tops with the back of a kitchen knife to make a cross.
12. cover with a teatowel and leave for 45 minutes.
13. in the meantime, heat the oven to 220 degrees celsius.
14. beat one egg with a small amount of milk and then brush over top of the buns.
15. mix together 3 tbsp plain flour, 1/2 tbsp sugar and 2 tbsp water to form a thick paste. Use this to make crosses on top of the buns. I used an icing pen.
16. bake for 15 - 20 mins.
17. mix together 1 tbsp sugar and 1 tbsp boiling water, then brush over hot buns for a glaze.

These are time consuming to make, but the process is oddly satisfying, particularly kneading the dough. It is a very tactile process. I would make them again, or possibly even see about making the dough as some kind of big loaf.

This morning we went to La Cigale in Parnell. By the time we got there most of the fruit and vegetables were gone, though I did get a rather large broccoli and some plums which when tried later turned out to be far too tart. This was the second time I've been to La Cigale, but the first time after going to Taste of Auckland, where we sampled some of Top Shelf's products (more on that here). They may have been there last time and I just didn't notice, but after the garlic and herb marinated feta from Taste, I couldn't pass up a chance to try more of Top Shelf's products. I tried a kalamata olive tapenade and bought some spicy mango marinated feta for $7. We also got a turkish bread from Pukeko Bakery (developing a pattern with the feta + turkish bread...).

From La Cigale we walked to the Domain. We found an adequately leafy and shaded patch of grass to sit on for a makeshift picnic with our Market purchases, spreading oozing feta on wedges of bread:

The feta was good, and I wouldn't hesitate to get it again, but I preferred the garlic and herb version. The Spicy Mango was sharper with a chilli bite, but I wouldn't have known it was supposed to be mango if the label didn't say so. Apart from chilli the other main flavour was thyme.