Season to Taste

If you have never taken advantage of the opportunity to participate in any of the classes offered by the Tri-County Tech, I highly recommend that you do. They offer a variety of subjects that have been developed to help add some zip to your life or to perhaps transform your comfort zone from ordinary to extraordinary. Some classes are more educational in nature while others and both entertaining and educational.

The bread making class that I recently participated in was a great deal of fun and the instructors could not have been more knowledgeable or helpful. The class was offered in town, so travel was not an issue and it was affordable to boot. I could have paid someone to let me come in just to smell the intoxicating aroma of all the bread while it was baking.

Hot Out Of the Oven Hot Cross Buns

1 pkg. or 1 Tbsp. dry yeast

¾ cup WARM milk (Not hot/not scalded and not super-duper warm)

3 cups All-purpose flour

2 eggs, at room temperature

¼ to ½ cup sugar 1 cup dried fruit (We used ½ Craisins and ½ dates)

1 tsp. cinnamon 4 Tbsp. softened butter

½ tsp. all-spice 1 fresh orange/ zested

½ tsp. ground cloves

1 tsp. salt

• In a small bowl: Add 1 Tbsp. of sugar to the dry yeast. Pour in the warm milk. Whisk and then let stand until it becomes very foamy. This will take a few minutes.

• In a large bowl whisk together flour, sugar, salt, spices, & orange zest until well blended.

• Using the dough hook attachment with your mixer, mix the yeast mixture, dry ingredients, and butter until just combined.

Add the dried fruit and the eggs (one at a time) until well mixed. (The dough will grab the flour away from the sides of the bowl. It will take a few minutes for this process to be complete and your dough will be sticky.)

• Remove the dough from the bowl, kneed by hand a few times adding a small amount of flour if it is too sticky. Return to the bowl and cover to rise (bench-proof) for 30 minutes to one hour/ doubled in size.

• Kneed dough one more time until smooth. Form into balls about the size of golf balls or 2 inches in diameter. Brush with an egg wash then bake at 400 degrees until golden brown.