Hot cross bun crash and burn

Quite baffling, these hot cross buns.  They tasted amazing (chocolatey orange heaven!) which was a surprise because the explanation to the recipe said that it had been developed for supermarket sale.  Supermarket buns .....? Meh.  Plus I'm a bit of a traditionalist.  Hot cross buns without fruit and spice? Hmmm.  I should have had more faith. A.MAZ.ING.  Unfortunately, it was a quick trip back to earth again because if you were to drop one on the floor I suspect it'd go straight through.  Not ideal. 

All cards on the table, it was a mortifying first step into breads and I have a lot more to learn than I imagined.  Stinkballs.  The husband gave me a quick lesson in the principles of bread baking (he's been playing with bread for a couple of years) and I have a couple of ideas, so I'm going to take another run at them soon.  I did nail the cross (that bit looked just like a bought one!) but I still feel like I should offer them to the neighbours who are currently re-piling a building on the front of their property, and I generally have no idea what went wrong with the dough which is really frustrating.

My thoughts are that the dough was too solid, not elastic enough.  I've never done bread before but my instincts tell me that I need to make this more about feel than following a recipe.  I may teak a process or two as well - where yeast and water go into the mix in the beginning for example, I might put the yeast in warm water and let it get itself going a bit before putting it in the mix.  Just in case my yeast is a bit bollocks.

I did think I was clever enough at baking that I'd take a run through the book, find a few challenges but generally read twice, bake once, and feel pretty pleased with myself.  The challenge in my mind was to bake everything for a start, and the project would be a good way to push myself to learn new tricks ... tarts and wotnot.  So, somehow bombing pretty much everything so far leaves me feeling a wee tad humble just now. 

And really sad that I don't have hot cross buns!  But, their time will come again (probably after fruity anzac bickies).

Before and after pics. Barely any change after baking equals bad, bad, rock-like buns.  They also look ugly.  I knew they would but I was terrified of over-handling the dough at that stage and so didn't want to work them too much to shape them.