The Necronomnomnom: Great Old Buns

Great Old Buns

These hot cross buns are named after the Great Old Ones in Lovecraft’s stories – beings of great power that once ruled Earth.

They do require yeast, so be prepared for it to take hours to prepare. You’ll need to let the buns rise a few times.

Warm water and yeast are combined first, and once bubbling flour, powdered milk, sugar, salt, and egg are added. It’s mixed together for 10 minutes using an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. I thought 10 minutes was a bit overkill, but left it in that long anyway just in case.

Then butter, dried cranberries and cinnamon are added and it’s mixed for another 5 minutes before being transferred to a greased bowl to rise until doubled.

Once risen, the dough is punched down and left to rest for 10 minutes before being divided into 12 balls. These are covered and left to rise until doubled once again. I will note that the recipe seemed to suggest that all 12 buns could fit on one cookie sheet, but that was definitely not the case for me – I needed two sheets.

Now we get ready to cook! Egg yolk and water are mixed together and brushed onto the buns, and a cross pattern is cut into the top of each bun. Each cross is sprinkled with some cinnamon before being baked.

Because I had two cookie sheets that didn’t fit on the same level in my oven, I had one sheet on top of the other. The top row turned out darker than the ones below, but both were cooked well.

After removing the buns from the oven and letting them cool, the icing is prepared by mixing the ingredients together and then being piped into the cross cuts. Mine was a bit runny, but it didn’t take too long to harden on the top of the buns.

Taste: 7/10

To be honest, I didn’t eat these right after they were done which could have made a difference. Instead I packed them up for a weekend getaway and tasted them a day later. I think they would be better while fresh, as the time I ate them they were a little bit dry. The flavor was still okay though, but nothing fantastic. They taste like a sweet bread.

I liked The Pioneer Woman’s hot cross buns better overall, however the icing in this Necronomnomnom recipe was a better consistency and the dried cranberries and cinnamon were mixed more thoroughly into the batter.

Difficulty: Average

Because this recipe uses an electric mixer to mix up the dough I think it’s a bit easier than some other buns recipes. But working with yeast is never completely easy, and there are several different steps such as forming the buns and making the icing that could trip someone up.

Cost: Cheap / Average

Final cost on this really depends on what’s already in your cupcboard and fridge. There’s a lot of ingredients, but most are pretty common.

Ingredients include: active dry yeast, flour, powdered milk, sugar, salt, eggs, butter, dried cranberries, cinnamon, confectioner’s sugar, vanilla extract and milk.