Hot Cross Buns1st April 2014Educator: Jenni

   Hot Cross Buns  ingredients• 50g sugar• 7g sachet dried yeast• 450g flour• 2 tsp mixed spice• 100g mixed dried fruit (currants, sultanas)• 25g chopped mixed peel• Zest of 1 orange• 1 egg, beaten• 50g butter, melted• 50ml milk, warmed

Many of the children have been bringing Hot Cross Buns in their lunch boxes, and I have had a game with them, telling them that I love Hot Cross Buns and I was going to eat theirs! This game even had other children coming to tell me that a child had a Hot Cross Bun that I should come and eat! It has been lot’s of fun! It then prompted me to suggest we make some Hot Cross Buns at kinder. So after the success of the bread for Harmony Week, I searched out a Jamie Oliver recipe and purchased the ingredients. The children were keen to have chocolate chip buns, but we stuck to the traditional!There was a lot of excitement when they arrived at kinder and saw the ingredients on the table and many of the children came to help.

After measuring and mixing all the ingredients the children stretched, rolled and squashed the dough to make it smooth, then we left it on top of the warm stove to grow.Lucy “You need the ‘east’ to make it grow, that’s why you add the ‘east’”

We knocked the dough back and rolled it into little buns and left it to grow again. Then the children came along, and, using strips of premade pastry, made a cross on the top and brushed it with egg. Then it was in to the oven to bake, before I glazed the hot buns with apricot jam. The children were given the Hot Cross Buns to take home but some didn’t make it, as the children munched on the buns as they left the kinder!

Outcomes:Community – Children cooperate with others and negotiate roles and relationships in play episodes and group experiences; Wellbeing – Children increasingly cooperate and work collaboratively with othersLearning – Children follow and extend their own interests with enthusiasm, energy and concentrationReflection: The enthusiasm of the children when we were making the Hot Cross Buns was fantastic. The recipe had quite a number of steps but the children accepted this and would help, then come back letter to check on the progress. They took a lot of interest in smelling the different ingredients, with many commenting that “It smells like Hot Cross Buns”. As the smell of the cooked buns wafted through the kinder, the desire to eat them increased and I loved that all the children took a Hot Cross Bun to try!

Jenni