Just dough it

In his oven-hot baking kitchen is a dream for any confectionary lover. Racks full of muffins,chocolate sticks,cookies,pies,cheesecake and mousse are just a finger-distance away. It’s hard to focus on cooking,but Fernandes says: “It’s simple. Just pour the flour,cinnamon powder and salt on the wooden plank.” Then I’m asked to add egg yolk,powdered sugar and butter to the flour. We proceed to mix of milk with yeast,before kneading the dough.

“Keep adding milk as you go,” he says,working the dough on a wooden board. “Use both your hands and knead it well,” he says. Once the dough is kneaded,we keep it aside for 20 minutes to ferment. We then make small buns,draw a cross on top of the bun with a paper cone filled with a paste of all-purpose flour and water. It is baked for 10 minutes,before it is ready to be savoured.

Legend has it an English widow whose son went to sea,vowed to bake him a bun every Good Friday. When he didn’t return she continued to bake a hot cross bun every year and hung it in the bakery window hoping that he would return some day. “But according to tradition,these buns were the only food allowed to be eaten by the faithful on Good Friday. Made from dough kneaded for consecrated bread used at Mass,they are representative of Christ’s body,” says Fernandes..The origin of Easter eggs is slightly different. Most Christians gave up eating eggs during Lent only to resume it after Easter. “Easter eggs in marzipan and chocolate are part of the folk tradition and have no religious significance,” says Fernandes.

We move to the cold chamber to begin work on Easter eggs. We simply ladle the chocolate into the egg-shaped mould and scrape back the excess. “Gently tap the bottom of the mould to ensure that you have removed all the air,” says the chef. We then allow the chocolate to cool in the freezer for 10 minutes,until it is ready to be popped out of the mould. We then join the two egg halves by melting the edges.

Now the final one: the Easter bunny,a popular symbol for Easter that strangely doesn’t have a Christian interpretation. “We will still make it,” says the chef,pouring white chocolate into the bunny mould. He lets it cool and pops it out in 20 minutes. And we are finally ready to celebrate Easter.