White Chocolate Chai Hot Cross Buns

A little twist on traditional hot cross buns. I really like the combination of white chocolate and chai and they work really well in a bun like this. The cross is optional, it doesn’t really add anything flavour wise to the buns, it’s just for the look and nod to Easter.

I also decided against a more traditional sugar syrup style glaze for these buns, they are sweet enough with the white chocolate, plus I don’t really like the sticky-ness it adds to the buns. I always freeze my hot cross buns, and defrosting them with a glaze on top is honestly just annoying! I’ve gently and lightly brushed these with a beaten egg before baking so they have a bit of shine.

White Chocolate Chai Hot Cross Buns

Ingredients for the Buns:

250ml milk

85g (golden) caster sugar

9g dried yeast

490g plain flour, plus extra

10g ground chai spice powder

2 eggs

63ml canola, vegetable or sunflower oil, plus extra

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

200g packet of white chocolate chips/bits (not melts)

Ingredients for the Cross (if using): 

90g plain flour

8g icing sugar (confectioners)

1/4 tsp ground chai spice powder

pinch of salt

15ml canola or vegetable oil

75ml water (room temperature/tepid is best)

Method:

In a small saucepan gently heat the milk and 60g of the sugar. Heat until lukewarm, then remove from the heat and mix in the yeast. Leave for 10-15 minutes, or until the yeast has become foamy - if the yeast does not foam, it may be out of date and no longer active, or if the liquid is too hot it may kill the yeast. It is best to discard the liquid and yeast and begin again if this happens.

Place the flour, salt, chai spice powder and remaining sugar into a large bowl (one that fits your stand mixer if you have one), and mix together. 

In a jug, whisk together one of the eggs with the oil and the vanilla paste.

Once the yeast is foamy, add to the flour mixture, along with the egg and oil mixture. Mix together with a wooden spoon until a rough dough forms. 

Then attach the bowl to your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, and knead on a medium speed for about five minutes. The dough will be smooth and a little sticky once done. If the dough is too sticky, add a little more flour (1-2 tbsp). 

While the dough is kneading, lightly oil a large bowl.

Dust your work surface with flour and tip the dough out. Add the white chocolate chips bit by bit and knead by hand to combine into the dough. Add small amounts of flour if necessary to make the dough a bit less sticky - the dough will be a bit sticky to touch, but it shouldn’t be really wet. There is no need to knead the dough for too long, as your stand mixer has done most of the work already. 

Place into the oiled bowl and cover. Leave in a warm spot for 1.5 hours, or until the dough has risen and doubled in size. 

Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Once the dough has risen, flour your work surface and tip the dough out. Lightly flour the top of the dough if necessary. Cut the dough into 12 equal pieces - you can weigh the dough and divide by 12, then weigh out each dough ball to ensure they are a relatively even size or by shaping the dough into a fat log shape, then cutting it in half, then dividing the two halves into six pieces each. 

Roll each piece of dough into a bun shape by folding the sides of each piece to the centre and pinch to close. This will now be the underside of your bun. Place the pinched side down, and cover your hand over the ball of dough like a loose claw. Rotate the ball of dough under your hand using the claw shape, to gently smooth the dough and form into a nice ball shape.

Place each ball of dough on the prepared tray, in a 4 x 3 formation. I usually leave a little space in between each to allow for more rising during the final proof and during baking. 

Cover the dough again and leave in a warm spot for about 30 minutes, or until the dough has risen. 

While the dough is rising, preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

If using, make the cross paste by whisking together all the ingredients in a medium bowl until it is a smooth yet paste like consistency. If the paste seems too thick, add a little more water.

Place the paste in a piping bag or zip lock bag and twist the top to close.

Once the dough has risen, cut a small amount of the piping bag tip off and pipe the cross over each bun. Do this by piping one long line over each row of buns, then finish it off doing the same in the other direction. Whisk the remaining egg, and gently brush the buns with some egg wash (focusing more on the buns than the cross).

Bake for 20-25 minutes, rotating the tray in the oven about half way to help the buns cook and brown more evenly. The buns will be ready when they are golden on top and sound hollow when tapped. 

Remove from the oven, and place the tray on a wire rack. Allow the buns to cool a little, before sliding the buns off the tray onto the wire rack using the paper they are sitting on. If you leave the buns on the tray too long, they may get a little wet underneath from the steam.

Serve warm. Can be frozen.

Makes 12 hot cross buns.

Chai Spiced Quince Muffins

Each quince season I like to make at least two batches of this quince chutney, and hopefully poach some for cakes, tarts, crumbles etc. 

This year I was beginning to worry I had missed quince season altogether as none of my regular green grocers had any in Autumn. As soon as Winter arrived, they appeared in the stores (near me anyway), I’m not sure if it’s technically late in the season for them, or if in the past I was just often lucky to find them earlier.

I originally found some really small quince, that looked a little sad honestly, and I wasn’t sure even a quarter of my wish list of quince recipes I wanted to make would be fulfilled. Luckily I soon found some really big quince a few weeks later at another shop and my hopes for all the quince wish list recipes was restored. 

I made a double batch or so (it sort of ended up being double and a half of the recipe) of my favourite quince chutney. I now have 12 jars of it so that should be enough to get me through to next quince season! 

Next was to poach some quince. I often end up overdoing this and have so much poached quince I don’t know what to do with all of it. This year I have only done one batch, though the four quince I poached were so spectacularly large they barely all fit in the baking tray at once. 

I poached them using the recipe for Fragrant Quince Butter with Rose from my Cosy Winter Bakes eBook, and just didn’t finish off the recipe to make quince butter, but rather left them as poached quince. (However you can use whatever poached quince you have using whatever recipe you prefer or always use to make the muffin recipe below.)

I decided to make muffins with some of the poached quince, as after all that fuss poaching them I felt a more simple recipe to use them in was in order. This is a great recipe to use if you have a bit of poached quince left from something else, or get into a bit of a quince recipe rut after poaching lots of quince. 

I used the chai spice mix from Gewürzhaus called Raj’s Majestic Chai Masala. If you can’t find anything similar you could also use 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ginger and 1/2 tsp ground cardamom. 

Chai Spiced Quince Muffins

Ingredients: 

300g self raising flour

165g panela sugar (or brown/muscovado sugar)

2.5 tsp chai spice mix

1.5 cups roughly chopped poached quince (drained of any syrup/poaching liquid)

1 tsp vanilla extract

125ml milk

125ml oil (any flavourless oil will do e.g. canola, vegetable etc)

x2 eggs

slivered almonds, for garnish

Method: 

Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius and line a 12 hole muffin tray with muffins cases. 

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar and chai spice mix. Then add the roughly chopped quince. 

In a medium bowl or jug whisk together the vanilla, milk, oil and eggs until well combined. 

Add the oil mixture to the dry ingredients and gently mix with a wooden spoon until just combined. 

Divide the batter evenly between the 12 muffins cases in the tin, and generously top each muffin with some slivered almonds. 

Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the muffins spring back to the touch. 

Allow to cool on a wire rack, however they are lovely eaten warm. 

Muffins are best eaten the day they are made, however any leftovers will freeze well for future muffin enjoyment. 

Makes 12 muffins.

Chai Cookies

I was inspired to make these cookies when Gewürzhaus* kindly sent me some of their products last week. I got their Feel Good Hot Chocolate, but since I can’t eat chocolate they generously sent me a couple of their chai products too. Both the Chai Masala and Sugar are caffeine free, if you are making a chai from the powder you add your own tea to the pot. 

I decided to adapt my Grandma’s Gingernut Cookies and make them Chai Cookies using these delicious products. This recipe is quickly turning into a very adaptable favourite, and I can highly recommend making these crunchy chai spiced cookies. I used date syrup/molasses as it goes well with the chai spices, but treacle or golden syrup will work well if you don’t have any. These cookies do taste like chai, but also remind me of gingerbread too. Which is somewhat comforting, especially with a cup of tea (or chai or hot chocolate!). 

Gewürzhaus Masala Chai Sugar, Raj’s Magestic Chai Masala and Feel Good Hot Chocolate

Chai Cookies

Ingredients:

115g unsalted butter 

225g caster sugar

2 tbsp date syrup/molasses

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg, beaten

290g self raising flour

2 tsp Gewürzhaus Raj’s Magestic Chai Masala (ground)

Gewürzhaus Masada Chai Sugar (coarse), for dipping

Method:

Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius and line three large baking trays with baking paper.

In a small saucepan melt the butter over low-medium heat. Once the butter has melted remove from the heat and mix in the sugar, date syrup, vanilla and the egg. 

In a large bowl whisk together the flour and spice mix. 

Add the butter mixture to the flour and mix with a wooden spoon until combined.

Tip some of the chai sugar into a shallow bowl.

Roll heaped teaspoonfuls of the dough into balls and dip one side into the chai sugar and place on to the prepared trays chai sugar side up. The cookies will spread as they bake so leave enough room in between. 

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Rotate the trays in the oven about halfway through to ensure the cookies cook evenly.  

Allow to cool on their trays, then store in an airtight container. 

Makes about 30 cookies.

*Products Kindly Gifted by Gewürzhaus.