It's Good Friday and what better way to celebrate than to get up before the birds to make good old Hot Cross Buns. Or Hotties as Gbf always calls them.

Guided by a recipe on the Internet I piled flour, sugar, yeast, extra currants, extra peel and extra extra spice! I draw the line at adding chocolate chips, don't get me started about that! Next in went butter and milk, slightly warmed. A couple of beaten eggs and it was ready to mix. I rolled and pushed and pummelled the mixture for the required ten minutes then left it covered. As the sun rose so did the dough.
More kneading and rolling and bumping and crumpling, I then divided it into little buns and put aside to rise again. It never ceases to amaze me how the dough doubles in size.

Baked and glazed with sugar syrup and they're ready to eat!! They don't look like shop bought hotties with their wonky crosses but GBF insists they're a thousand times nicer!

Especially when served on a perfect sunny morning with the beautiful linen that Gbf's mum recently gave us.
Joan knows about my penchant for vintage table linens and keeps an eye out for them in op shops. How lucky am I! The embroidery in this set is all hand stitched. If you look closely you can see the circles drawn in pencil.

Such perfect little stitches. Yellow and white is so Eastery, don't you think?
So, are you having hot cross buns this Easter? Are you a choc chip person or extra fruit person?

Cheerio