HFF 3.2: Looking Back

The Challenge: Looking Back Improve upon (or try an alternate version of) a previous challenge, or a recipe you are already comfortable with. I revised the hot cross buns I made for challenge 2.20, with some insight from the other 1850s receipt I tried last Easter.

The Receipt:  Cross Buns from Five Thousand Receipts: In All The Useful And Domestic Arts, by Colin MacKenzie.

Cross buns
Put 2 1/2 lbs. of fine flour into a wooden bowl, and set it before the fire to warm; then add 1/2 a lb. sifted sugar, some coriander seed, cinnamon and mace powdered fine; melt 1/2 lb of butter in half pint of milk; when it is as warm as it can bear the finger, mix with it three table spoonsful of thick yeast, and a little salt; put it to the flour, mix it to a paste, and make the buns as directed the last receipt. [...cover it over and set it before the fire an hour to rise, then make it into buns, put them on a tin, set them before the fire for a quarter of an hour, cover over with flannel, then brush them with very warm milk and bake them of a nice brown in a moderate oven.] Put a cross on the top not deep.

The Date/Year and Region: 1854, American (Philadelphia), adapted from a British source

How Did You Make It:  I upped the 6 tsp of yeast I used previously to  7.5 tsp of dry yeast (this is proportionately closer to the amount I used in the other receipt, which gave a lighter roll).

Mixed together 2.5 lbs of all-purpose flour, 1/2 lb of granulated sugar,  4 tsp cinnamon, 4 tsp coriander, and 2 tsp mace. All spices were pre-ground; I increased the amount of coriander and mace from last time. I melted 1/2 lb of butter, added 1 cup of skim milk to the butter, 1 tsp of salt, and the yeast. After letting the yeast wake-up for a few minutes, I mixed it into the dry ingredients. I added a little milk while kneading, because the dough was really dry, and let let it proof in the oven for 1 hour.
Shaped and let rise a few minutes more, then baked at 350F for 20 minutes. I forgot to brush with milk, so the rolls turned out a little paler than they should have.


Time to Complete: About 3 hours, include rising and baking time.

Total Cost: All ingredients on hand--which is why I made these: I'd planned to revisit the apple-substitute-for-quince pudding receipt, only to have the store in which I finally found quinces no longer has them. I then tried Beeton's macaroon receipt--again--only to run into some major problems with the structural integrity of egg whites.

How Successful Was It? Lighter than the first time I made them, and spicier than the second. I could probably tweak the spices more, but this is a good proportion. The main issue is that the dough is still really dry, so it's not especially pretty. I need to keep working on that.

How Accurate Is It? As previously noted, I'm using dry yeast (modern!) and these were largely a commercial product in the 1850s. I'd like to think they're getting better, though. And that spice combination of cinnamon, coriander, and mace is delightfully Victorian.

Hot Cross Buns. These were the photogenic ones.