Hot Cross Buns

Happy Easter....Monday!  I hope everyone had a fab holiday, and I know lots of kids have this week off for Spring Break.  Unless your county is like mine, and decided to do it last week instead.  Bummer.  Anyway, regular day for us.  Kids are off to school and I'm busy being domesticated.  Not really, I'm sitting here on the computer. obvi.   The dishwasher is running if that counts.  Instead of ruminating on all the things I need to be doing, I'm going to share these lovely buns and a little tidbit of info I learned about the ever elusive...allspice.

As I mentioned on Friday, I made Hot Cross Buns (for the first time).  If you have never had one, they are like a spiced yeast roll with raisins (or currents and sometimes candied fruit peel).  They are very tasty.  They are traditionally eaten on Good Friday and there is a whole history on the buns if you are so inclined to do a search on them.  I am so not a history buff, and skipped over all the boring stuff history, looking for the right recipe.  I know, some people are tsk, tsking me for my lack of pursuit of knowledge.  BUT, that's not exactly true!  I did learn something....about allspice. 

The recipe I used for the Hot Cross Buns is from Pioneer Woman.  If you go to her site, she has great step-by-step instructions (with pics!) on how to make these.  I followed her instructions exactly, b/c I didn't want to mess them up! (They were for the parentals you know).  The only changes I made were...(you know there had to be at least one) is that I used skim milk, b/c I didn't have any whole milk, and I added 1/4 t. allspice, 1/4 t. nutmeg, 1/4 t. ground cloves, in addition to the teaspoon of cinnamon called for.  AND I added a tablespoon of lemon and orange zest.  This is a must in my opinion.  Oh, and I did not use raw egg white in my frosting, b/c that seemed like a bad idea (especially for my dad who has a weak immune system from his bone marrow transplant last June).  I used 1 cup confectioner's sugar, 1/4 t. vanilla, and enough orange juice to get the right consistency.  I think it was 2-3 T.  Okay, so more than one change to the recipe!

Back to the allspice.  Did you know that allspice is an actually spice, from a berry, not a combination of spices (like I heard many times in the past)?  You can read all about it here, if interested.  Since I rarely use allspice, I didn't have any.  But, you can make an allspice substitution, which is a combination of spices.  All you have to do is combine equal parts of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and pepper.  Yes, pepper!  I made mine up and stored it in the classy plastic baggie that you see above.  See, I learned something this weekend.  (Actually, I learned it a while back, but does anyone really care?).  Just passing it along, in case you find yourself without any allspice.

Also, I tried the chocolate covered Peep.  Dark chocolate of course.  Still not a fan.  I ate the whole thing (it was covered in chocolate), but the marshmallow inside was really soft and soooo sweet.  Not that I have a problem with sweet, but marshmallow is just not really my thing.  I've been told that I should try a stale Peep, that once they harden they are really good.  So...there are some Peeps sitting around, maybe I'll give that a try too.  Not that my thighs want me to like anything else.  hmmm, that sounds kind of weird...but you know what I mean.  'a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips' :P 

I officially dislike whoever came up with that little phrase.

Linking up with The Gooseberry Patch Blog; Foodtastic Friday