White Chocolate Hot Cross Buns – Easter Tradition with a Twist

Hot cross buns! Hot cross buns! One ha’ penny, two ha’ penny, Hot cross buns! If you have no daughters, Give them to your sons…

I love, love, love me some hot cross buns. Waking up on Easter morning, running into the kitchen to see Hot Cross Buns in the oven was life altering. Something so simple and easy yet so irresistibly good – how could they not change lives?!

Of course we always had them on Good Friday, but us kids didn’t really understand what that was. But boy, when we got tucked in and told we were having Hot Cross Buns in the morning it was like Christmas Eve.

You remember that anticipation that kept you from closing your eyes for more than a few minutes at  a time.

I love that my son gets to embrace this tradition today, and I imagine he’ll share it with his children too. Or at least marry someone who will. Everyone has their own way of making hot cross buns, and I’ve added a little twist to mine. My mom used to use raisins  her mom used currants, I use white chocolate chips. Don’t judge me, they’re soo good!

I make my Hot Cross Buns pretty big, but we like ’em big. Truth be told, they would probably bake better if they were smaller. We’ve never had enough leftovers to need to freeze them, but I imagine they would keep for a couple days at least. What do you think?

How do you like your Hot Cross Buns?

White Chocolate Hot Cross Buns

Amber

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Ingredients

  

• 5 tsp dry yeast
• 1 1/2 cups warm not hot milk
• 1/4 cup honey
• 4 tablespoons butter cut into 1/4 inch pieces
• 2 eggs plus 1 egg beaten
• 4 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice or stick with cinnamon if you prefer
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup white chocolate chips plus 1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Instructions

 

• Pour 1/2 cup of the warm milk into a small bowl. Add the yeast and allow it to bloom for 10 minutes.
• Whisk in the honey, 2 eggs, butter, pumpkin pie mix, salt and white chocolate chips. Mix in the flour, slowly. While mixing, carefully add the 1 cup of milk.
• Once the mixture is dough like, dump it onto a counter and knead 4 times. If it's too sticky add a little flour to smooth it out. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to double in size; about 20 minutes.
• Lightly flour your work surface and place the dough on it. Pull off pieces about the size of a baseball (or your preferred size) and make them into balls. Place the balls on a parchment lined baking sheet. Continue until all the dough is used. Cover again with plastic wrap and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. I like to sit my buns on the oven to rise while it's preheating. This take between 10 and 15 minutes.
• Uncover the buns and cut crosses into the tops. Brush the tops with the beaten egg and bake for 20 minutes or until browned.
• To ice the tops I melted 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips and piped the crosses on with that. Yummy!

Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls Copycat Recipe

Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls Copycat Recipe

When it comes to sweet rolls, one of my favorite is the cinnamon rolls from Cinnabon. It’s a blend of perfect sweetness and softness. But instead of buying we can all save a lot of money by making our own homemade cinnamon rolls. Before trying to make it at home, I thought it was hard to make but I was wrong, not only was it super easy the taste is absolutely a winner. You’ll never know the difference of the real thing with this Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls Copycat Recipe. It’s so delicious and perfect with coffee or tea.

Here’s how to make Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls Copycat Recipe Continue reading

Irish Soda Bread Recipe – a St. Patrick’s Day Tradtion

My step dad used to always brag about being The Real McCoy. I guess technically it was true since his last name was McCoy but he took it a bit far. He was always proud of his Irish heritage and incorporated Irish tradition into any occasion possible. You can only imagine how St. Patrick’s Day went down around our house. Irish Soda Bread was always a staple on St. Patrick’s Day as was Irish Coffee on New Years. He was the only father I knew so I try to continue these traditions with my family.

I was going through one of his old recipe boxes last week trying to plan out our St. Patrick’s Day celebrations and happened upon his Irish soda Bread recipe. He always took so much pride in making this traditional Irish bread so I wanted to do the same. I wanted to make something that would match his Irish Soda Bread in flavor but still be mine.

When my step dad made the Soda Bread he used a traditional recipe with only 4 ingredients. His recipe makes an amazing bread but I like a little more depth to mine. I added in a few tablespoons of sugar and some raisins to make a bread my entire family will enjoy. The sugar and raisins can be easily omitted for a more traditional Irish Soda Bread.

If you’re looking for something easy and tasty for your St. Patrick’s Day celebration this Irish Soda Bread is for you. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

 Have You Ever Made Traditional Irish Soda Bread

Irish Soda Bread

Amber

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Course Appetizer

Cuisine Irish

Ingredients

  

• 3 cups sifted flour cake or pastry flour works best since they're softer
• 2 - 4 tbsp sugar depending on how sweet you want it - or omit it all together
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup raisins leave these out for a more traditional soda bread
• 1 1/3 cups buttermilk

Instructions

 

• Mix the dry ingredients together well. Stir in the raisins and milk.
• Mix together to form a sticky dough.
• Turn out onto floured board and knead until smooth (8 - 10 times - don't over knead.)
• Line a 9 inch cake pan with parchment paper and add the dough. Spread the dough out in the pan.
• Score the dough with a large "X" on the top.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 65 minutes.
• Carefully remove the bread from the oven. Serve with your Irish meal.

Notes

This bread needs to be consumed within 1 or 2 days - it will not keep.

Pineapple Blueberry Cake

Pineapple Blueberry Cake

We love a great bread. I just can’t help it! This recipe came about because I made a pineapple cookie and it only used half the can of pineapples. I thought I bet I can put this into a bread and make it just divine. That is what we did. This is our pineapple blueberry cake. We have always loved the sweetness of a blueberry and the tart taste of a pineapple. The combination of the two in a bread is divine. I usually make muffins like this but my kids really enjoy a bread. You can see my amazing basic muffin recipe that is a fan favorite in our home.

These are the ingredients for the Pineapple Blueberry Cake

Ingredients:

• 1¾ cup flour
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 tsp of  salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 cup milk (we use rice milk)
• ¼ cup melted butter
• 1 cup of crushed pineapples (with the juice is fine)
• 4 oz plain Greek yogurt (regular should work too)
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

1/4 stick of butter

1TBS of milk

2 cups of powdered sugar

4 Tsp of lemon extract

Then to make the icing

1/4 stick of butter

1TBS of milk

2 cups of powdered sugar

4 Tsp of lemon extract

You will make the icing by melting the butter and adding in the wet ingredients. Then add in the sugar and let it set a little. You want to make sure when it pours it doesn’t run.

Enjoy!

I use the lemon icing the I use on my Starbucks Lemon copy cat recipe. This is my favorite lemon pound cake recipe.

We also have a fantastic moist lemon cake.

Easy Breads for Breakfast

Easy Banana Nut Bread

Sugar Free Banana Bread

Easy Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin Bread

Irish Soda Bread

Champagne Bread

Cinnamon Apple Monkey Bread

Champagne Bread

Champagne Bread

I had champagne leftover and I decided why not make something out of it. I looked over the Internet and I was lead to this great recipe for an orange and champagne bread. I decided to try it. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it is and how great it tasted. We served it with pasta but it would compliment a soup or salad. It could be paired with fruit and eggs for a fancy brunch.

Champagne Bread

3 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup Champagne

1/2 cup orange juice

2 Tbsp. grated orange zest

optional 3 Tbsp. melted butter for the top of the bread

You will first mix together the dry ingredients .

This is great bread and a wonderful use for that last cup of champagne

Then you grate in the orange peel.

Finally, will mix in the wet ingredients. The bread will be a bit lumpy that is fine place. When you have mixed it you will place it in a greased loaf pan. You will  cook it at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.

Note: This recipe for the liquid can be substituted for a 12 oz beer or soda to change the flavor of the bread. It is an easy base for an awesome bread.