May 2023 - Tin Dragon Cottages & Tailrace Sauna

Nothing is better than hot cross buns straight out of your home oven. And, with this easy recipe you will be able to impress your family and friends with delicious home-baked buns next Easter!

The meaning of Hot Cross buns at Easter

Eating hot cross buns on Good Friday is a longstanding tradition in many parts of the world, including here at Tin Dragon Cottages. I guess this rich history in Christian tradition, means they are more than just a tasty treat! The cross on top of the bun symbolizes the crucifixion of Jesus, and the spices represent the spices used to embalm his body after his death.

Why you should bake Hot Cross buns at home

Easter is a time for family, friends, and delicious food, and one of the most popular Easter treats are hot cross buns with their iconic crosses on top. The aroma of buns baking at home is simply irrisistible! So, why not try out my easy traditional recipe? My recipe is made more convenient by using bread maker (Panasonic SD-2501). Of course we often bake these spicy buns (without the cross and glaze) – why wait for Easter?

Hot Cross Buns Recipe using a Bread Maker

My recipe was perfected after several not-so-good attempts. I hope my final version saves you the time and effort of trial and error!

Ingredients for makeing hot cross buns: spices, dried fruits, bread-making flour and egg are shown. — Inredients for hot cross bun recipe

Dried fruit added in the top of the bread maker

In this recipe I use soft white bread-making flour from the Tasmanian Flour Mills and Australian dried fruits. I really like citrus peel in these buns, but for reasons I don’t understand, citrus peel is not always available in our local supermarkets – go figure? Fortunately I was able to source some bulk amounts through a Tasmanian food wholesaler. As a bonus, this meant I could also supply my home-baking friends with this key ingredient, too.

Ingredients

1 Tablespoon dried bread-making yeast
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
3 1/2 Cups white flour
1 Tablespoon mixed spices
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 Teaspoon ground corriander
1 cup water
1 egg
1/4 Cup olive oil
1/2 Cup currants
1/2 Cup dried citrus peel
1/2 Cup sultanas

Method

Ingredients have been added into the bread-making machine — All ingredients in the bread-maker

GFront panel of the panasonic bread making machine with menu 17 selected. — Program 17 selected

Adding ingredients into the bread maker

After mixing the three dried fruits together, I add the mix into the top of the bread-maker. See the image, above.

Most bread-makers will have instructions for adding the dry and wet ingredients into the baking tin. For the Panasonic I add the dried fruit mix into the top of the machine, then I add the ingredients in the following order into the baking pan: yeast, brown sugar, flour, spices, egg, water then oil. I premix the egg in the water.

Now I set the program on the bread maker (setting 17 for the Panasonic), and go away for about two hours.

Shaping the buns

It seems crazy now, but I struggled with getting this to work. But I won’t bore you with my less than aesthetic misshapen bun results.

The bun mixture weighs about 1200 g. So I remove the mixture from the bread maker, then divide it into 12 100g portions.

Risen bread dough in a bread maker pan. — Dough has risen well

12 100g portions of hot cross bun dough are sitting on a green cutting board. — 12 portions of dough

Next I grab each portion in my hand, pinching it underneath to form a rough ball shape and add them to a lined baking tin (~ 20cm square).

12 dough balls are sitting in a square baking tin that has been lined with baking paper. — Dough balls added into a square baking tin

Dough balls have risen to the top of the square baking tin. — Dough after about 1 hour at (40 deg C)

Final rise

Using a pastry brush I lightly brush the top of the dough balls with water, then place them in a warm oven to rise. After about 1 hour at 30 – 40 deg C the buns have risen to the top of the baking tin.

Adding crosses to the hot cross buns

Before adding the white crosses, I brush each bun with a small amount of beaten egg. One egg is plenty! You can also use a milk wash. But for fancy hot cross buns, I prefer to use egg.

For the crosses you will also need a small plastic bag with a fine cut made in one corner of the the bottom of the bag. Or, you can use a fancy-pants piping bag and nozzle.

I add about 1/2 cup of plain flour to a bowl and gradually mix in water to make a paste. The paste needs to be liquid enough to squeeze it out of the bag, but not so liquid that it wants to drip out of the bag!

Christine is brushing the raw buns with an egg wash. — Brushing the buns with egg wash

A plastic bag is being used to pipe the crosses onto the raw buns — Adding the crosses

A baking tray filled with hot cross buns is being removed from a kitchen oven. — Hot cross buns baked!

Baking the buns

The tray filled with buns is put into an oven pre-heated to about 200 deg C. The buns should be ready after 20 minutes. I test the buns by tapping the top of them. If they sound “hollow” then they are ready! However, if I feel uncertain, then I turn off the oven and allow the buns to sit a little longer (~ 5-10 mins).

Adding a fancy brandy glaze

While the buns are still baking in the oven, I cook up a small volume of lemon syrup in a saucepan by adding the juice of one lemon and at least 1/4 cup of white caster sugar. The syrup is brought to the simmer point till the sugar has dissolved and it looks syrupy. After removing the syrup from the heat I add a generous volume of brandy (about 2 tablespoons).

A woman is pouring a small quantity of brandy into a measuring cup. — Adding in the brandy

The glaze is then brushed on to the buns, immediatley after they are removed from the oven. Then the buns are returned to the still hot oven for a few minutes.

Once I take the tin out of the oven I let it cool down, then I remove the buns by lifting the baking paper. The buns are placed on a wire rack till they cool to room temperature.

A baking tin contains 12 hot cross buns, glistening with a sticky glaze. — Enjoy the sticky lemonly spicy amazingness of freshly baked hot cross buns!

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Four people are pouring bucket of water on to a small fire to make biochar.

At Tin Dragon Cottages, last Saturday 29th April 2023, Christina Giudici demonstrated how easy it is to make biochar. She demonstrated the use of a low-tech low-cost method for making biochar in a pit kiln using prunings and fallen branches from around our property.

Because our Tin Dragon Team (Christine, Graham, James and Fraser-farm-dog) and five other local residents were keen to learn, we sponsored Christina Giudici for an instructional biochar field day.

What is Biochar?

If you are an avid gardener or simply love plants, you may have come across the term “biochar” at some point.

Christina in the Tin Dragon Cottages workshop space

Christina explained that biochar is a type of charcoal produced by heating organic matter in a low-oxygen environment. The resulting highly porous charcoal is very stable and benificial for soil and plant heatlh.

Combating climate change

She also pointed out how making biochar is one of the ways we can combat climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recognises biochar production as one of the key negative emissions technologies.

Converting waste plant material into a charcoal-like substance called biochar and burying it in soil can also be used to store carbon away from the atmosphere for decades to centuries.
IPCC FAQ Chapter 4

By the end of summer we usually have a collection of fallen branches and timber off-cuts (flitches). Like many farmers, we would be completely burning-off these piles to ashes. But, this year we have decided to turn these piles of waste fuel into biochar. This is a win for the environment and a win for us, because we are removing fallen branches from our paddocks, sending fewer emissions into the air and making a stable carbon product to benefit our soil!

How to Make Biochar on the Farm

Of course there are many ways to make biochar from large to small scale and from high- to low-cost options. We chose to use a simple pit kiln, because this method suits our limited budget and is well suited to removing waste fuel on our property.

The flame cap method

Prepare the pit and the fuel

Graham and James dug a 1.5m cone-shaped hole in our river-flat paddock. Our good old Fiat tractor with grader blade made this an easy task! We already had a pile of tree branches courtesy of summer storms and wind. So with the aid of a chain saw, James cut the timber into suitable lengths for the pit. We stored the timber under a canvas ready for the field day.

Christina starts the fire in the bottom of the pit to make the biochar. — Christina starts the fire at about 11 am

The fire pit is about half-filled with timber fuel and the fire is beginning to make biochar. — The fire cap starting to form

Keep the flame cap going

We had perfect weather for being outside. While we were stoking the fire, we chatted about all-things biochar, soil and farming. Christina told some stories of her early experiments with making charcoal in pit kilns–some not so successful!

Stuart explained how he uses feedchar to improve the health and productivity of his commercial dairy herd. The lush rich paddocks of his farm certainly appear as a testiment to the value of this biochar treatment. Apparently freshly made clean charcoal is suitable for animals to eat. But, of course–for commercial uses–the biochar needs to be certified as safe for consumption – i.e. it must be free of all potential contaminants. So we will be using our home-made charcoal in the garden, only!

A man and a woman farmers standing in a green paddock surrounded by dairy cows. They are folding a long-handled shovel. — Stuart and Kylie Nailer, long-term FEEDCHAR® users and regenerative–carbon dairy farmers – at home on their dairy farm

Smaller tree branches and twigs were thrown on top of the heavier flitches to keep the fire cap high. This helps make charcoal deeper in the pit.

A group of seven people are standing around a fire pit where they are making biochar. — Warming ourselves next to the fire

Time to douse the fire

After about three hours, the fire was at a stage where we were ready to quench the flames with water. Besides, we were also wanting to stop for lunch. So, although we could have stoked the fire with more feedstock, the team took to the buckets!

Two people are throwing buckets of water on a hot pit kiln fire. There is a cloud of steam rising our of the pit. — Instant sauna

One lady holding a bucket and another lady looking on, are standing beside a pit kiln half-filled with newly made biochar. — All that remains…

Care was needed to pour the water down the sides of the pit till the pit was fully flooded. After the dust and steam had settled, it looked like we had made about 400 L of charcoal.

Over lunch we exchanged ideas about gardening, soil and the uses for biochar. We had such an enjoyable day, that we suggested we should do it again! Graham, James, Fraser (farm dog) and I would certainly be pleased to host another biochar bon-fire. Perhaps each participant could take away a bucket of biochar in exchange for sharing lunch and helping with the fire?

A wood-fored BBQ made from a stell drum has sausages cooking. Perhpas another way to make biochar? — Wood-fire BBQ – more biochar?

Then discussion moved to a more important topic – food! We agreed it could be fun for Christina to come back to show us how to make pasta. Apparently biochar can be added to pasta… How about it Christina?

A cook is standing at a kitchem bench making pasta. The flour is mounded up and is meing mixed with eggs. — Make your own pasta (image by Klaus Nielsen on Pexels)

It’s a Wrap – how to make biochar

Size the hole or trench or cone to suit your feedstock
Prepare your feedstock – sized for your pit and keep it dry
Choose good weather – not windy
Keep the flame cap high till all the feedstock is used, or the pit is full
Locate the pit near a source of water for dousing
Flood quench carefully

How to use biochar in the garden

While clean biochar may be good to feed to animals – including our chooks – it is not so good to add it directly into garden soils. This is because biochar is really good at soaking up nutrients from the soil. In fact, fresh biochar may compete with plant roots for the available nutrients in the soil and cause a reduction in plant growth.

So, to prepare the biochar we will be using the “car-crush” method to break up the biochar from our pit. We then intend using the crushed biochar in our chook house, by layering it on top of the straw bedding. The biochar will be useful in eliminating odour and soaking up the nutrients from the chook poo! Then we can rake it up and store it away for at least several weeks/months to let it compost. The aged compost should be good for our garden!

You can read more about how to use your biochar on Christina’s webpage. I will add to this page to show you how we prepare and use the biochar on our property, too!

learn more about the effects of biochar on soil properties in this DPI article.