Whole Wheat Hot Cross Buns

As always, I was surprised how easily these buns came together. I have been cooking with yeast for years now, but I am still shocked how easy it is. If you are one of those people who avoids homemade bread because you are afraid of yeast, stop missing out.  It is so easy, I promise you. If you have a stand mixer with a dough hook, it is even easier. I have a confession to make, I NEVER knead my dough by hand, even if the recipe says to, I still use the dough hook. I have never had a problem. This recipe does ask you to knead in the currents by hand and I did do that, but only because I had already cleaned everything up and put my mixer away. I'm not sure how well they would have incorporated with the bread hook anyway.
Every year I think about making hot cross buns, but Easter sneaks up on me and I never get around to it. Funny, the year that Easter is earlier than I ever remember it is the year I finally get around to making them. Now that I realize how easy they are to make, hopefully I will be making them every year. This recipe makes 24 buns, but that's ok because folklore specifically states that you are supposed to share them with friends. I asked David to bring (more than) half of them to work, but he forgot them on the counter. Looks like we are going to be very lonely the next year! Also, if you feel like you need some good luck with bread baking in your kitchen the next year, you can hang one of the buns in your kitchen to ensure that all your breads turn out perfectly. I wasn't too fond of the idea of having a moldy bun hanging around my kitchen for the next year and decided to look into this tradition a little further and found a couple of fun articles in the news this week. One family has passed down a hot cross bun for five generations, the bun was baked in 1821, the year Napoleon died! The article has some other fun tidbits of folklore, you can find it here. That's a pretty old bun, but these folks think there's might be even older, read about the 200 year old hot cross bun here.
I think I'll stick with these fresh ones thanks. Happy Easter everyone!