HOT CROSS BUNS

Take ½ lb. butter, 2 lb. flour, 1 breakfastcupful of warmed milk, half a teaspoonful of salt, ½ lb. fine sugar, 1 teacupful of yeast, 1 lb. currants, and 1 teaspoonful mixed spice. Mix the yeast with the milk, mix the flour with the dry ingredients, and make a hole in the middle of it. Pour in the liquid, and with the surrounding flour mix into a thin batter. Cover, and set in a warm place till the leaven ferments; melt the butter, and with the milk make a soft paste with all the flour. Dust flour over, and put again in a warm place to rise for half an hour. Mix in the currants, shape into buns, and place on a greased oven slide, and let them rise again in a warm place for half an hour. Put a cross on them with the back of a knife, and bake in a quick oven for 15 or 20 minutes. This quantity will make 24 buns.