Wendy Ra­hamut

East­er time her­alds the com­ing of spring. It can be called a new be­gin­ning if you live in a coun­try which ex­pe­ri­ences the dif­fer­ent sea­sons.

We too en­joy chang­ing sea­sons, but the changes are not as vi­su­al­ly dra­mat­ic.

Af­ter about six long months of win­ter, birds be­gin to sing, the sun peeps out from be­hind the clouds and every­where the earth is blessed with signs of new growth–the sight of tulips, iris­es and East­er lilies are some of the first signs of spring beau­ty.

East­er time al­ways brings with it some charm en­trenched with tra­di­tion.

It's a time for choco­late bun­nies, pas­tel colours, dyed eggs, pret­ty East­er bas­kets, bright flow­ers, East­er egg hunts, choco­late East­er bun­nies in all flavours and East­er bon­net pa­rades.

Last but not least, it wouldn't be East­er with­out de­li­cious breads.

Hot Cross buns are one of the fa­vorites at this time of the year, al­though they are tra­di­tion­al­ly served on Good Fri­day morn­ing they are just too de­li­cious to pass up bak­ing a batch any time you feel like a treat!

E-mail: ra­hamut@gmail.com

HOT CROSS BUNS

1 tbs in­stant dried dry yeast

1/4 cup warm wa­ter

1 cup luke­warm milk

1/3 cup sug­ar

1/3 cup but­ter, melt­ed

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cin­na­mon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground nut­meg

1 egg

1 egg yolk

4 to 4 1/2 cups all pur­pose flour

1 cup raisins

1/4 cup mixed peel, (op­tion­al)

1 egg white slight­ly beat­en

1 tbs wa­ter

METHOD

In a large bowl, com­bine yeast with two cups flour, com­bine wa­ter, milk, sug­ar, but­ter, salt, cin­na­mon, cloves, nut­meg, egg, and egg yolk. Beat un­til smooth. Stir in raisins and mixed peel add enough flour to make the dough easy to han­dle.

Turn dough on­to a light­ly floured sur­face and knead un­til smooth and elas­tic, about five mins.

Place in a greased bowl turn greased side up. Cov­er and let rise un­til dou­bled in bulk, about 45 min­utes.

Punch down dough, di­vide in­to four equal parts. Cut each part in­to six equal pieces.

Shape each piece in­to a ball, place about two inch­es apart on a bak­ing sheet.

With a scis­sors, snip a cross on top of each ball.

Cov­er and let rise un­til dou­bled in size, about 30 mins.

Pre­heat oven to 375F

Mix egg white with one ta­ble­spoon wa­ter, brush top of buns with egg white mix­ture.

Bake un­til gold­en brown, about 20 min­utes.

Frost cross­es on buns with pow­dered sug­ar frost­ing.

Makes 24 rolls.

POW­DERED

SUG­AR FROST­ING

1 cup ic­ing sug­ar

1 tbs wa­ter or milk

1/2 tsp vanil­la or al­mond ex­tract

METHOD

Mix sug­ar with wa­ter and vanil­la un­til smooth.

Add a lit­tle more wa­ter if need­ed 1/2 tsp at a time.

Place in a pip­ing bag and pipe cross­es on­to buns in line with the cross­es cut pre­vi­ous­ly with the scis­sors.

Let dry be­fore serv­ing.

CHED­DAR CHEESE BRAID

Jew­ish Egg Braid

This is a hol­i­day bread, steeped in tra­di­tion and his­to­ry en­joyed by Jews around the world. It is so de­li­cious that it has be­come a pop­u­lar bread world­wide.

1 tbs in­stant dried yeast

3/4 cup warm wa­ter

1/4 cup sug­ar

2 eggs

1 tbs veg­etable oil

2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups all-pur­pose flour

Veg­etable oil

2 egg yolks

2 tbs cold wa­ter

Pop­py seeds for gar­nish­ing the top.

METHOD

Com­bine yeast with 11/4 cups flour.

Com­bine wa­ter, sug­ar, eggs, one egg yolk, and one-ta­ble­spoon oil.

Add to flour mix­ture and beat un­til smooth.

Stir in enough re­main­ing dough to make the dough easy to han­dle, soft but not sticky.

Knead dough on a light­ly floured sur­face for about five min­utes.

Place in a greased bowl, cov­er and let rise un­til dou­bled in bulk, 45 mins to one hour.

Punch down dough and di­vide in­to three equal parts.

Roll each part in­to a rope like length about 14 inch­es long.

Place ropes close to­geth­er on a light­ly greased cook­ie sheet.

Braid ropes gen­tly and loose­ly. Fas­ten ends and tuck un­der braid se­cure­ly.

Brush with oil and let rise un­til dou­bled in size 30 to 40 min­utes.

Pre­heat oven to 375F.

Mix the oth­er egg yolk with two ta­ble­spoons of wa­ter and brush braid with egg yolk mix­ture.

Sprin­kle with pop­py seeds and bake for 25-30 min­utes un­til deep gold­en brown.

Makes one braid.

CHAL­LAH

1 tbs ac­tive in­stant yeast

21/2 to 3 cups all pur­pose flour

1 cup milk

1/4 cup but­ter, melt­ed

1 tbs sug­ar

1 cup grat­ed ched­dar cheese

For the fill­ing:

1/2 tbs but­ter

1 cup grat­ed cheese

METHOD

Pre­pare dough:

In a large bowl com­bine flour, sug­ar, salt, and yeast and sug­ar. nAdd one cup cheese.

Warm milk to 115 to 120 F, add melt­ed but­ter, and com­bine, add beat­en egg

Add milk mix­ture to flour mix­ture and knead to a soft dough, add as much as the re­main­ing flour as you can to make a soft but pli­able dough. over and let rise un­til dou­bled in vol­ume, about 45 min­utes.

Roll dough to an 8 by 16 inch rec­tan­gle.

Di­vide dough in­to three por­tions equal sec­tions, braid dough, tuck ends un­der.

Cov­er and let rise un­til dou­ble in vol­ume, about 20 min­utes.

Pre­heat oven to 400F.

Bake for 20 min­utes, then sprin­kle with re­main­ing cheese and bake for a fur­ther five min­utes un­til nice­ly browned.

Makes one braid