Pan De Coco and Hot Cross Buns

I wanted to try making pan de coco for a long time now but I couldn`t decide on which dough recipe to use. Kusina ni Manang suggested any sweet bread dough while CafeNilson recommended the challah dough, which, I can`t do because I don't have the book. It crossed my mind to just do my Honey Soft Dinner Buns but I wanted to try a new bread recipe so finally, I went back to CookingBread. com and settled on their Hot Cross Buns recipe.

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk (I used plain milk)
• 1/4 cup melted butter (I used salad oil)
• 2 eggs (beaten)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (I used 1/4 cup honey)
• 3 1/2 - 4 cups bread flour
• 1 tablespoon instant yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tbsp marmalade (for glaze)

Coconut Filling:

• 3-4 tbsp brown sugar
• 3 tablespoon dessicated coconut
• water

Directions: (most of the following was copied and pasted from Cookingbread.com and edited according to what I really did.)

Heat milk to lukewarm, be sure to stir continually. Pour into a large bowl. Add in sugar, oil and eggs, mix with a wooden spoon. In a separate bowl add 1 cup of flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and yeast. Stir with a wire whisk till well blended. Add dry ingredients to the liquid mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon till smooth. Add in another cup of flour and beat for 2 minutes. Continue to add flour slowly, till the dough comes together. Pour out onto a lightly floured surface and continue to knead for 8 minutes. You may not need all the flour. You want the dough to be on the sticky side rather then the dry side. The dough will become smooth and elastic. Add a little oil to a clean bowl add the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for about 2-3 hours. Punch down the dough. Allow the dough to rest for 20 minutes. Pour out the dough and shape into a log, cut dough in half. Cut each half into 6 pieces, for 12 pieces. Shape into balls and place onto the parchment paper . Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise till double in size.

Mix the ingredients for the coconut filling and heat for a while until the the sugar has been dissolved and integrated with the coconut but not fully caramelized. Put the coconut filling and bake in preheated 180C oven for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and glaze with your favorite jam or marmalade. I did mine with orange marmalade.

Half of the dough, I made into the Hot Cross Buns.

Paste for the crosses:

• 1 tablespoons flour
• 1/4 teaspoon powder sugar
• 1-2 tablespoons water

After buns have risen. Mix the ingredients for the paste to make the crosses. Place paste into a zip-lock bag and cut the tip off. Squeeze the paste on top of the buns to make the cross. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for bake 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and heat apricot jam or marmalade in the microwave strain out the lumps and brush the tops of the buns.

The original recipe called for raisins and cranberries to be kneaded in the dough. I`ll reserve that for another time.