I thought I was so clever…
I thought I was a genius…
I thought I had this super cool original idea…
And then I googled it – ‘hot cross muffins’… and I discovered a whole lot of other people had stolen my super cool, genius, clever idea!
But I decided to make them anyway, and I’m glad I did because they are easy and delicious.
Ok, they are not quite the same as the sticky, yeasty, goodness of a traditional hit cross bun, but they only take five minutes to prepare, and 20 minutes to cook, and they cost a fraction of the price, and, if you make mini muffins you can quickly stuff two in your mouth and hide one in your hand as you sneak out of the pantry without the kids noticing! Now that, my friends, is genius!
- 2 1/2 cups self raising flour
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 2/3 oil
- 1 cup yoghurt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup of mixed dried fruit – sultanas, currants, peel
- Pre-heat your oven to approx 180 C and grease and flour your muffin tin, or using cupcake liners.
- In a large bowl combine the flour, spices and brown sugar, mixing well and making sure there are no lumps.
- In a separate bowl or jug, mix together the oil, eggs and yoghurt (you can use milk or butter milk if you like).
- Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture, add the we ingredients and mix until combined.
- Mix through the dried fruit
- Spoon the mixture into your prepared muffin tin, filling each spot 3/4’s full.
- Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the muffins just begin to brown on top.
- All to cool completely then mix a small amount of thick icing – 3 tbsp of icing sugar with a few drops of lemon juice or milk – and pipe icing crosses on your muffins.
Do you bake something special at Easter?
If you are looking for some more fun Easter activities try these…
That INDEED is genius, ;-). Love it!
No, I don’t bake anything special for Eastern, but I do make a special kind of hard boiled eggs that have to soak in salt water for a few days and are then eaten with a few drops of oil and vinegar and some mustard.
Very yummy, but also very unhealthy in the amounts my family loves to eat them, so I only make them for Eastern.
Wishing you a good and blessed holy week!
So long,
Corinna
I love it! And I’ve not seen them before this so in my mind you made it up! :) Will definitely be giving these a go if my plans of hot cross buns fall through again this year!! Why do I see them as just that little bit too hard!!
I find them hard too.
I can make a killer cinnamon scroll, but a fluffy fruit bun still eludes me!
I already think you’re a genius. I’m sure many families would enjoy these and possibly prefer them to the traditional buns. :)
We made a batch of these today. They were delicious! Such a great idea. We made the mini ones so I reduced the cooking time to 18mins in a 160 degree fan forced oven which seemed about right. I had trouble doing the crosses nicely though. Did you use a piping bag? I was trying to drizzle from a teaspoon haha!
I used a snap lock bag with the corner cut off to do the crosses, and you need to make REALLY stiff/thick icing and make sure the muffins are well cooled! :)
I’m gluten-intolerant, so I substituted the flour with Dove’s Farm self-raising gluten-free flour, and they were delicious!! Probably more “crunchy” than they would be with regular flour, but scrumptious all the same! I could not stop eating them… ;)