Dry ingredients
- 5 cups cake flour or strong bread flour
- 1½ packets of instant yeast (15g)
- ½ teaspoon of salt
- 6 tablespoons of caster sugar
- 2½ teaspoons of mixed spice
- 2½ teaspoons of fine cinnamon
- ½ a teaspoon of nutmeg
- 2 teaspoons of fine ginger (I use fresh ginger, grated)
- 1½ cups of chocolate pieces (I used milk chocolate slabs and chopped with a knife into small chunks the size of a raisin)
Wet ingredients
- 300ml lukewarm milk
- 70g melted butter
- 2 extra large eggs, whisked
Method
Put all dry ingredients in a bowl and stir till combined.
Add wet ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until well combined.
Transfer dough to a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes and place in a lightly oiled bowl.
Cover and allow to rise for 90 minutes.
Next knock down the dough and shape round balls placing it 2cm apart on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
Next step: cover with tea towel and allow to rise again for 35 minutes.
Method
Take half a ¼ cup of cake flour, 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder and just enough water to make a soft thick paste.
Take this paste and spoon it into a piping bag with a thin nozzle or just a plastic bag, cut a small piece with a scissors at the tip corner and pipe down on each row all the way to the last bun and then do the same with the other rows of buns forming the cross shapes.
Bake in a preheated oven at 190°C for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
While still hot out of the oven brush with a simple sugar syrup; take a quarter cup of boiling water and stir in about 4-5 tablespoons of sugar.
Stir until dissolved.
You can cook this syrup for a few minutes on the stove or omit this step and stir in the sugar syrup a teaspoon of apricot jam until dissolved and brush over hot buns.
And that’s it.