Dear Little Dormouse: One a penny, two a penny...

HOT CROSS BUNS!!
Today is Good Friday. I have to say, as much as I love going away, I really do love holidays at home. Especially when it's raining and I'm making hot cross buns!
Here's a step-by-step for you with waaaay too many pictures:

You'll have to start while still in your PJ's, if you want to eat these around lunchtime... my feet look minute here. They are small feet. But not that small!

You'll need to melt some butter...

You could do this in a microwave. I don't have one. Well, I do have one. But I don't use it. It's not even in my kitchen. Now add milk. You want the mixture to be at blood temperature, which means you have to stick your finger in it. Sorry about that.

Now you need to add yeast and sugar...

Leave it for a while, so the yeast can eat the sugar and go all frothy.

This next step is where it helps to have a Polly. Polly is my Kitchen Aid. I love her. She's the most helpful person in our family.

Here she is, with a bowl full of flour (plus a teaspoon of salt). Pour in the frothy yeast mixture.

Note the dough hook - this is where you use it, after it's been annoying you in the drawer for a year.

Mix like crazy. Make sure you show a little person - preferrably a little person in a onesie.

When he saw me this morning, he gleefully announced, "look Mummy, I gotta onesie!" He's a cutie. He knows it. You need to knead the dough for 10 minutes. No less. Don't skimp, even if you're kneading by hand and your arm's about to fall off!

When the kneading is done, it'll look like this... stretchy and silky. Now cover it with a clean tea-towel and pop it in a warm place to double in size - the hot water cupboard is an ideal place for this. It takes about an hour, so go fold some laundry, have a shower, contemplate the startling revelation that your husband has been wearing your socks. I would be less horrified if he had nice clean feet with manicured toenails. But my husband is Samoan. He has feet like a rhinosceros.

Ok, back to bread... after an hour you whip it out of the cupboard and Ta Dah!!

It's like a small, yeasty miracle. Right here is enough dough for 25 buns. Now comes the fun part, so enlist some crazy little helpers in matching aprons.

Cute! Now you're going to tip out your dough and add fruit, spices, and chocolate chips. I'm not a purist. I just love chocolate.

Here we have raisins, currants, cinnamon, chocolate chips, coffee. The coffee's for me. Sanity in a mug.

We simply spread the flavourings on top, folded it over, repeat. It worked ok, I think next time I'll just throw it all in for the last minute of kneading. Polly can handle it better than I can. Next, shape the mixture into little rolls... I allowed the kids to help, which means we have some random shapes. It's ok, the Queen's not coming to lunch.