Video: Hot cross buns for Easter

SPH Brightcove Video
Easter, a season of religious significance for Christians, is also celebrated with a myriad of delicious goodies including hot cross buns. Watch French pastry chef Frederic Deshayes of Do.Main Bakery make these buns from scratch.

Easter, a season of religious significance for Christians, is also celebrated with a myriad of delicious goodies - from chocolate Easter eggs and rabbits to traditional dishes of lamb and breads, such as braided brioche.

This weekend on ST Food, The Straits Times' food website straitstimesfood.com, watch a video on the making of hot cross buns, which are traditionally consumed on Good Friday and over the Easter weekend. Friday marks Good Friday.

One place that makes these buns from scratch is Do.Main Bakery in Tanjong Katong Road, which opened in December 2014.

French pastry chef Frederic Deshayes, 48, who trained at the well- known Lenotre in Paris and has worked with famous patissiers Pierre Herme and Christophe Michalak, demonstrates how the buns are made in an exclusive video for ST Food.

First, the dry ingredients, which include French bread flour, sugar, salt, yeast and ground allspice, are mixed until well combined.

Next, liquid ingredients of skim milk and eggs as well as cold butter are added to the flour mixture. It is then kneaded into a dough.

Chef Deshayes, who was a culinary school instructor, checks the elasticity of the dough before adding orange peel and rum- soaked raisins to it.

The dough is then left to rest and ferment for 30 minutes, after which it is portioned into 50g pieces, shaped into balls and left to rest for another 15 minutes.

The balls are then reshaped and placed in trays, which are shoved into a proofing cabinet for about an hour, where the buns double in volume.

Piped with icing in the shape of a cross, the buns are baked for 15 to 20 minutes in an oven, then glazed with sugar syrup the moment they come out.

The sweet and fluffy spiced buns, available from today until Friday, are priced at $9.50 for six.

Another video to look out for is the final episode of the 10-part Basic Kitchen Tips series. It will be released tomorrow.

Aimed at beginner cooks, I show you how to cook the perfect Singapore coffee shop-style soft-boiled eggs - you know, the kind we Singaporeans like to tuck into for breakfast alongside kaya toast and kopi.

Other videos in the series include how to cook rice in a pot on the stove and how to joint a whole chicken.

ST Food went live in November and showcases videos, stories and recipes from The Straits Times, The Business Times and The New Paper, as well as regional and international publications such as The Washington Post and The New York Times.

•Follow Rebecca Lynne Tan on Twitter @STrebeccatan

Watch how hot cross buns are made: http://str.sg/hot-cross-buns

Watch the Basic Kitchen Tips series http://str.sg/4sV4

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on April 09, 2017, with the headline Video: Hot cross buns for Easter. Subscribe