A couple of weeks ago I registered to join an online sourdough masterclass in my lunch break run by the fantastic Barney Desmazery of BBC Good Food magazine. The session was called ‘Sourdough - beyond the basics’ and at £10 for 90 minutes it sounded good value for money.
Advertised as one hour’s masterclass plus 30 minutes of Q&A, it actually morphed into 60 minutes of Q&A after the masterclass, even better value! But one of the things Barney mentioned in the Q&A was sourdough hot cross buns, saying there was going to be a recipe for them in the next Good Food magazine.
So I waited for it to be available on the Readly app, and avidly cracked on. The resulting buns made the house smell gorgeous, and they tasted okay......but the texture was off - too doughy. In hindsight, I didn’t give them a high enough ambient temperature for proofing; because sourdough loaves can proof quite happily at normal ambient room temperatures of 20-22° I assumed it would work for the buns, but it didn’t.
So I prepped my sourdough starter the night before making them and put it on the radiator, giving it 9 hours and a good supply of gentle heat to do its thing - and this morning at breakfast time it had more than doubled, looking bubbly and happy!
Did a bit of multi-tasking before work, eating my porridge while weighing and mixing ingredients, then started the day job and gave the dough all morning to proof on a warm, sunny windowsill. Went off-script with the ingredients, using 100g cranberries, 50g mixed citrus peel and the zest of a lemon rather than an orange - not a raisin or sultana in sight!
In my lunch break I knocked back the dough, divided into 12 and shaped the buns, then put the tray initially back on the windowsill and then into the oven using the proving programme on a cosy 35° until I packed away the laptop at 5.
And the warmer temperatures really did the trick: the dough was
obviously happier and the buns baked a treat! I’m SO chuffed with them - they’re a really generous-size bun, and so very light and fluffy, not stodgy in the slightest. Difficult to believe there’s no commercial yeast or additives at all, and if I’d bought one of those from a bakery I’d be pretty impressed. I still can’t get my head around how it’s possible to get such a good rise with just flour, water and salt.
So I’m very glad indeed I joined that sourdough masterclass otherwise I might’ve missed seeing that recipe. I’ve already booked for the next one so who knows what gems will come out of that! Search for Barney Desmazery on Instagram for details of upcoming sessions and the link to book.
Check out the recipe here: sourdough hot cross buns
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