Chai Spiced Hot Cross Buns

I love Chai in any form and I love home made Hot Cross Buns.  So what better marriage than Chai spiced hot cross buns.  My favourite is a Chai Spice mix of cinnamon, ginger, cloves and cardamom.  In fact just like variations of chai you can play around with the spices (freshly ground is best) and I’ve even infused the warm milk with some leaf chai tea.

Chai Spiced Hot Cross Buns

I use the Everyday Cookbook version of Hot Cross Buns as a base and reduce the sugar to about 10g of rapadura making them a great snack for the kids.  And there's plenty of other variations to try.  With or without citrus, a handful of cocoa nibs, a hint of espresso, wholemeal, with or without crosses...    All delightful and hard to resist straight from the oven with homemade butter of course.

And these are so delicious you'll want to make them all year round so just omit the cross and you won't feel guilty a bit.
 

 

Easter is early this year so what are you waiting for? Start baking!

Chai Spiced Hot Cross Buns

250g milk

70g unsalted butter

10g rapadura sugar

1 free range egg

½ tsp salt

10g dry yeast

100g wholemeal bakers flour

400g bakers flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground cloves

½ tsp ground ginger

½ tsp ground cardamom

80g sultanas

70g currants

• Place milk into Thermomix bowl and heat for 1 minute at 90° on speed 1
 
• Add butter and sugar and mix for 10 seconds on speed 2
 
• Place remaining ingredients excluding sultanas and currants and knead for 2 minutes on Interval Setting
 
• Add sultanas and currants and knead for a further 1 minute
 
• Wrap in Thermomat or place in a covered bowl and leave to prove in a warm place for 2 hours to approximately double in size
 
• Break off 1/3 cup size pieces, shape into rolls and place on a lined baking tray and let them prove for a further 30 minutes (we like them small in size as they go further!)
 
• Pipe with crosses if desired (a mix of 80g flour, pinch salt, 1tsp oil, 100g water in a piping bag or zip lock bag with the end snipped off)
 
• Bake in a preheated oven at 220° for 15 minutes
 
• Brush with sugar syrup (a mix of 1 tbls rapadura sugar and 1 tbls hot water) while still warm

 

Enjoy!

Indulgent Dark Chocolate Brownies

 

 

While most of my recipes I write about a health motivated, some are just pure indulgence and make a very special treat.  I was off to visit a friend with her first new baby today and which new mum doesn’t like chocolate!  So I went in search for the best Thermomix Chocolate Brownie and I found it!  This recipe is based on a Thermomix Recipe Community version called "Extreme Brownies", but with a lot less sugar, quality chocolate and a few other tweaks the result was a killer!

Indulgent Dark Chocolate Brownies

300g rapadura or raw sugar

1 tsp baking powder

60g organic cocoa

100g plain flour

200g unsalted butter roughly chopped

Pinch of salt1 tsp coffee granules
200g dark chocolate (70% cocoa - broken into pieces)

3 free range eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

• Preheat oven to 160C
• Grease and line a 20cm square cake tin and set aside
• Place sugar into Thermomix bowl and mill 4 seconds on speed 9
• Add baking powder, cocoa and flour and mix 5 seconds on speed 9
• Remove from bowl and set aside
• Place butter and salt into bowl and melt for 3 minutes at 60° on speed 2
• Add chocolate, vanilla and coffee and combine for 10 to 15 seconds on speed 4 until roughly combined.  If there are still some small chunks that’s ok as it adds some chocolate chunks to the brownies
• Leave in mixing bowl and allow to cool to 37°
• Add flour mixture and eggs and mix for 10 seconds on speed 3 or until just combined
• Scrape down sides of bowl if required
• Pour mixture into prepared tin and bake for 1 hour or until top appears baked and a skewer comes out with a few crumbs attached
• Allow to cool completely in the tin

Enjoy with even more indulgent cream or ice cream and a sprinkle of raspberries!