In the lead-up to Easter, our resident foodie Chris Gordon has been experimenting with recipes. Here, she shares some hot tips for hot buns.

Easter is here and I am gobsmacked by the cost of Easter buns for sale. Really $18 for 6 buns just seems excessive and so with my trusty food encyclopaedia at hand - Margaret Fulton’s Encyclopedia of Food and Cookery - I decided to go for the feel-good factor. It was time to cook my own.

Margaret says here that her recipe is easy and never fails and I’m going to believe her because she has been cooking for a very long time.

I follow the recipe exactly as I’m not used to using yeast and so am a tad nervous. I want to do justice to Margaret’s fail-proof recipe. I mix the ingredients, I wait for the yeast to ferment and I create (wha I believe to be) the most perfect smelling lump of soon-to-be Easter buns. The recipe tells me to cover the dough and put in a warm spot for up to two hours so it will double in size.

I do this.

And I wait.

And I wait until bed time.

In the morning I mix and knead and punch my lump of dough, and hope for the best. I go to work. Around 20 hours later my dough has risen to double the size. I really have no idea why my dough took 18 hours more than what the fool-proof recipe said but no worries, as from this point all things go well.

The end result - the house smelling like an old time bakery with kids hovering in the kitchen and the option to taste these cheeky buns straight from the oven - is simply delicious!

As a side note, Margaret does tell you when and how to put crosses on these little darlings. I chose not to as I’m not Catholic but for those that do celebrate their faith this time of year, you will have another step to manage but I’m sure it will be as easy as the rest.

Happy holidays home chefs and a happy rest to you all.

Chris Gordon