Did you use jug-hot water instead of tap-hot with the yeast. It doesn't respond well to that.
If you have to totally bin it, I've just made my second batch of lovely hot cross buns with this recipe (which I think I recall being Richard Till's), so it's "tried and true":
Hot cross buns
1 cup milk 1/2 cup hot water 2 Tabs sugar 2 Tabs dried yeast 2 cups flour 100g butter 1/2 cup sugar 1 egg 1 tsp salt 1 1/2 Tabs mixed spice 1 tsp ground nutmeg 1 tsp cocoa 1tsp vanilla essence 1 cup dried mixed fruit 2 1/2 cups of flour
Mix milk, hot water and 2 Tabs of sugar in metal bowl.
Sprinkle in yeast. Leave to stand until bubbles appear.
Add 2 cups of flour and leave to stand.
Cream butter and sugar, add egg, salt, spices, cocoa and vanilla. Combine the two mixtures and add mixed fruit. Add remaining flour to make firmer dough.
Knead well.
Leave to rise until doubled.
Knead then cut into 20 pieces and form into buns.
Let rise until more or less doubled, make cross slash in top before baking and cook 225C for 12-15 minutes.
Bring out of oven and glaze immediately with two teaspoons of sugar mixed in heated 1 1/2 tspns of water.
joybells63,
Apr 5, 9:17pm
always add a little sugar and a vitamin c tablet with the yeast when you can.
annmary79,
Apr 5, 9:37pm
The recipe I am following said to put the yeast into warm milk,then whisk in an egg,then put into flour mixture.First time ive tried making them,so dont know what ive done wrong.Have now placed dough into balls on oven tray,says to leave them somewhere warm again.Oh well we could be eating tiny hot cross buns this year.
cgvl,
Apr 5, 10:26pm
Mine didn't rise yesterday so last night I made up some more yeast 2tsp in half cup warm water, 1tsp sugar and 2Tbsp of plain flour, left that to rise.bubble and tipped my unrisen buns back into a bowl added abt a cup of plain flour and the yeast. Mixed it well then kneaded and made it into rolls and left covered overnight on the bench. In fact it has taken 12 hours to get a decent sized bun. Cooked them at lunchtime today and they are great except once again I forgot to glaze them.
annmary79,
Apr 5, 10:55pm
Once I had left them on the tray,they did rise,so now they are in the oven and looking great.Happy Easter Everyone.
buzzy110,
Apr 5, 10:59pm
Eggs, sugar and milk seriously interfere with yeast action. You'll have to wait much much longer for any action.
Temperature is also an issue. Warm means not cold, rather than warm. Your liquids should only be the same warmth as your hand, which means it feels neither warm, no cold though colder is fine. Pick a cheap thermometer up from your supermarket when you next go. It saves on a lot of angst. 28- 32C is perfect for yeat. Any hotter and it will begin to die.
kinna54,
Apr 5, 11:31pm
Takes ages.I made some today.started making them at 10.am.we had them at 3.45pm for afternoon tea.and the temp is a real issue. I left mine rising on the bench with the sun streaming in, and took ages before anything happened. And yes themix I used today has a whole egg and a egg yolk, so that's probably what slowed the mix down.thx buzzy,. that would have been what made the difference, as normally my buns rise much faster.
kinna54,
Apr 5, 11:38pm
The recipe with the cocoa is nice but a little heavy for my taste.I made an internet recipe,submitted by lister5. Allrecipes.com. Lovely and light. Only thing I would have done different is added a little more spice (my cinnamon is quite flavourless) and maybe used a cinnamon sugar glaze rather than the egg wash glaze. although the buns did come up nice and shiny.and the icing crosses were yum
I put my mixture on top of the hot water cylinderand covered it with clear film and yes it will take some time. The one's I made this morning took about 2 hours before they doubled in size.
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