Sourdough, Einkorn Hot Crossed Buns
This celebratory classic pairs well with freshly churned butter! The spices are kept out of the dough while it ferments and then added at the end with a yeast paste that allows all the benefits of sourdough along with the predictability and fluffy lightness of yeasted dough.
Ingredients
Levin
- 1 Cup All purpose Einkorn Flour
- 1 Cup milk at room temperature
- 1 Tbsp sucanat
- 1/2 Cup Sourdough Starter
Dough
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 Cup Sucanat
- 1 tsp. Sea Salt
- 1 Cup Whole wheat Einkorn Flour Substitute 1 cup of all purpose if you want an all white bread.
- 2 Cup All purpose Einkorn Flour
- 6 Tbsps. Grass Fed Butter (un-salted), diced, room temperature
Additions of Fruit, Spice, and yeast
- 1 1/2 Tbsps. yeast
- 1 tsp. water
- 1 Tbsp. All purpose Einkorn Flour
- 1 Cup Raisins could use currants or other dried fruit if you prefer
- 1 tsp. Cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. Cloves
- 1/2 tsp. Nutmeg
Egg Wash
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 tsp. Sea Salt
Cross Paste
- 1 Tbsp Butter
- 2 Tbsps. Milk
- 1/3 Cup Sugar You want this to be white (use organic if you can)
- 1 Egg white
- 2/3 Cup All Purpose Einorn Flour
- 2 drops lemon or orange essential oil make sure it is food grade, can substitute lemon or orange zest to taste
- pinch sea salt
Instructions
Levin
- Stir together the Levin ingredients until smooth and leave for 2-3 hours in a covered bowl.
Dough
- Mix the egg and the sucanat, salt, and flours in with the Levin. You can use a spoon, hands, or your electric dough hook. It is only necessary to mix the dough thoroughly. In other words, a lot of kneading is not necessary.
- Let it rest for a few minutes to an hour before adding in the butter. Add the butter and mix thoroughly. Let the dough sit at room temperature from 6-12 hours. Note: I prefer not letting this dough get too sour which means not letting it sit as long as normal sourdough.
Fruit, Spice, Yeast
- Stir together the yeast, water and flour in a small bowl. Knead this in with your dough until it is fully mixed. Let it rise until almost doubled in size, about an hour, and punch down. Knead in the spices and raisins. Continue kneading until your dough is smooth. Note: I do not like the taste of soured spices so I like to add them at this point in the recipe when the souring process is mostly over.
- Allow the dough to rise until it has doubled in size. At this point you are following the common yeast method of dealing with the bread while still retaining the benefits of sourdough. It adds some softness and lightness to these celebratory rolls and allows me to keep my spices from fermenting. I also like the visual texture that the spices make when adding them at this point. They do not fully disperse through the dough and the result is pretty.
- Make the Egg Wash by whisking the egg and salt together, let it sit while the dough rises.
- Shape the dough into balls and place them on a greased pan.
- For hot crossed buns that look traditional you do not want them to touch as they rise and bake. If you do not care about that you can crowd them into a brownie pan and let them rise upward. They will touch each other as they rise and you will just pull them apart to serve. They will taste delicious. If, however, you want to take pictures or stun your dinner guests you can place them widely spaced on greased cookie sheets. Glaze them gently with egg wash as they are rising. Let them rise until when you poke them the dough does not immediately begin to fill in the indentation.
- Here is a picture of crowded buns during their last rise before being baked.
Cross Paste
- Melt butter, sugar and milk together. Take your egg white, citrus oil, and flour and mix them in with the melted butter, sugar, salt and milk. Make sure the melted ingredients are not hot enough to burn the egg.
Finish
- Make crosses on the buns with the cross paste. I just use a small spoon but if you want to use a piping bag you could do that and you could make tidier cross.
- Bake at 350 until golden brown, about 20-30 minutes.
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