One a penny, two a penny.....Hot Cross Buns

Happy Easter!  Hot Cross Buns and butter - yum!

It must be Easter so time for Hot Cross Buns!  Perfect Easter food - lightly spiced bread dough stuffed full of raisins and, in my case, dried cranberries.  Not traditional but oh so lovely.  And, not a sign of mixed citrus peel anywhere.  I have a loathing of the stuff I'm afraid so it doesn't feature in my baking if I can help it - unless it is requested as an addition of course.
It did take me two takes to get them right, I will confess.  The first recipe I tried was a River Cottage Bread book recipe.  Normally, I love the recipes from this and use the traditional bread one whenever bread making is required.  However, my Hot Cross Buns came out like bullets! Small, solid and leaden.  Perfect missiles that even the chickens wouldn't touch!  Not what a Hot Cross Bun should be at all so back to the drawing board I went.  The BBC Good Food website came up trumps.  A perfect Hot Cross Bun I think.  Light and tasty, full of fruit, not too overly spiced and beautifully shiny and sticky on top .... and I got 13 out of the dough.  They were a hit which is to me, the sign of a great Hot Cross Bun!  Only down side - they didn't last very long!