For the shortening in this recipe, I pulled out the Earth Balance shortening I picked up in the organic market. It is vegan, non-GMO, and most importantly non-hydrogenated. Regular Crisco is: genetically modified soybean oil, fully hydrogenated palm oil, partially hydrogenated palm and soybean oils, mono and diglycerides, TBHQ, and citric acid. Earth Balance is expeller-pressed organic canola, soybean, flax, and olive oils. Expeller-pressed means it’s squeezed in a machine and much healthier than hydrogenation, which creates trans fats. Remember, Crisco can only say on the label “0g Trans Fat per serving” because there’s less than .5 g in one tablespoon. But if you need 1/2 cup of shortening, that’s 8 tablespoons or almost 4g of trans fat. Anything that says “hydrogenated” in the ingredients has trans fats, no matter what the label advertises.
Hot Cross Buns
4 1/2 t active dry yeast
1/2 C warm water
1/4 C milk
1/2 C melted shortening
1/3 C organic sugar
3/4 t sea salt
3 1/2 C flour
1/2 t cinnamon
3 beaten eggs
2/3 C currants
1 egg white
1/2 C powdered sugar
Dissolve yeast in warm water. Combine milk, shortening, sugar, and salt. Sift 1 cup of milk with the cinnamon into the milk mixture. Add eggs; beat well. Stir in yeast mixture and currants. Add remaining flour to make a soft dough, beating well. Cover with a cloth and let rise in warm place until double (1.5 hours). Punch down. Turn out on lightly floured surface. Cover and let rest 10 minutes. Roll or pat down to 1/2” thickness. Cut into biscuit shapes. Placed on sprayed baking sheet. Cover and let rise in warm place until almost double (about 1 hour).
Preheat oven to 375. Cut shallow cross in each bun with sharp knife. Brush tops with slightly beaten egg white (reserve the rest of the egg white). Bake 15 minutes. Cool slightly. Mix powdered sugar with remaining egg white and drizzle (or pipe) on crosses.
[1] “Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book,” Meredith Publishing Company, 1965.
