Bread Blog
A Day In The Life Of A Baker At Easter
Our Hot Cross Buns just keep on coming!
It’s 2am on the Thursday before Easter – yep that’s AM the time when your bed is at its most attractive. Right when you’re in the middle of the best dream you’ve ever had, I’m at working making the best Hot Cross Buns you’re ever going to have.
The Thursday before Easter is what we like to call Bun Day – it’s when all 700 Bakers Delight bakeries go Hot Cross Bun crazy! I make and sell more Hot Cross Buns on this day than any other, in fact it is the busiest day of the year.
I make my Hot Cross Buns from scratch – you won’t find any frozen dough in my bakery! I mix all the ingredients together and knead the dough. The dough then needs to rest… sometimes I think I do to, but when one lot of dough is resting, I’m beginning to mix another! Once rested I put the dough in the bun rounder – this is a special bakers machine that puts our buns into fantastic small rounds. They look a bit like R2D2 or a Dalek… depending on how old school you are about your TV/Movie robots.
I then pop them on a tray and into the proover - basically a big hot room to start the yeast activating and the dough rising. Once risen, the crosses get piped on and then it’s into the oven. In no time at all, the HOTTEST CROSSED BUNS are ready, I just give then a bit of a shine and wait for them to cool before putting them into bags ready and waiting for you!
It’s a bit of a lather, rinse, repeat – I just start the process again, making sure that every Hot Cross Bun is one I would eat!.I make four types of buns – Traditional, that are bursting with fruit, Choc Chip, with over 100 chips per bun (seriously – I count!!), Mocha, a coffee and chocolate delight (my fellow bakers love one of these straight from the oven when we are doing the early mornings) and Fruitless.
The day continues on and I keep on baking – early in the morning for my customers that want them for breakfast, throughout the day for office morning teas and treats with the girls and long into the afternoon so that they are fresh for kid’s afternoon tea and your sneaky treat after dinner.
And I just love it. Yes, it’s tiring, yes it’s hot, but it’s Easter and they are little buns of goodness. I love seeing the smiles on my customers when they pick some up… yes I admit to having a sneaky peek while I’m busy baking but you can see why I do!
Signing off for now so this is my cue to wish you a Happy Easter!!!
Chris Parker, Baking since 1996