Ingredients

Buns:

• 3 cups all-purpose or whole wheat flour
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1 pkg dry yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1 cup skim milk
• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 3 Tbsp unsweetened applesauce
• 1 egg
• 2 egg whites
• 3/4 cup dried currants
• Also: ½ cup flour additional

Glaze:

• 2 egg whites
• 2 tsp skim milk

Icing:

• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp lemon juice

Instructions

Heat milk gently until warm but not boiling. Add yeast, cover, and set aside. Combine flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves in large bowl. Add butter, egg and egg whites, butter, and applesauce, and stir a few times. Add milk and yeast and mix together vigorously for about 2 minutes. Sprinkle a flat, dry work surface with about ½ cup of flour and turn dough out. With lightly floured hands, knead about 8 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic, then add currents and knead in until evenly distributed. Spray a large bowl with non-fat cooking spray, place dough in bowl, and turn to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise about 90 minutes, or until dough has doubled. (When pressed with a finger, indent should remain.)

Spray cookie sheet with non-fat cooking spray. Turn out dough and pat to remove any air bubbles that may have formed while rising. Divide into 12 pieces and cover with a light kitchen towel or cloth, letting stand 10 minutes. Form each piece into a ball. If there are seams, pinch them tightly together, and place seams facing downwards on the cookie sheet, each bun about 3 inches apart. Cover once again with towel or cloth and let sit an additional 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Beat together egg whites and milk for glaze. Use sharp, clean scissors to make two snips, about 2 inches across and ½ an inch deep, in the top of each bun, forming a + sign. Brush with glaze and let sit 15 minutes. Bake in center of oven 20 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through baking, or until buns turn medium brown. Remove to wire racks to cool.

While buns cool, whisk together ingredients for icing (sugar, vanilla and lemon juice). Mixture should not be runny, but should not be too thick either. If needed, add very small amounts of skim milk to thin out to an icing consistency. Use a spoon to drizzle icing into the snipped indentations in the top of each bun, and serve buns hot when icing has set, accompanied by fresh lemon curd (recipe below).

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 2 egg whites
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp freshly grated lemon zest
• 1 Tbsp unsalted butter

Instructions

In medium saucepan, whisk together egg, egg whites, sugar, lemon juice, and zest. Add butter and place over low heat, warming gently and whisking constantly until thickened, about 5 or 6 minutes. Do not let boil. Remove from heat and let sit uncovered several minutes. Store refrigerated in an airtight container.