Hot Cross Buns
These Hot Cross Buns are a classic, lightly spiced and incredibly fruity, and they are perfect for Easter.
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Hot Cross Buns
I am well and truly obsessed with Hot Cross Buns at the moment. Come this time of year they are absolutely everywhere but if you ask me hot cross buns should be available all year round. This is why I have developed my own recipe, I can make them whenever I want.
There is honestly nothing better than a lightly toasted Hot Cross Bun served with butter. This recipe makes 12 buns which is, of course, far too many for me to enjoy by myself but they can be frozen for up to three months. They also can be shared with friends or family if you can bear to part with them.
Easter Classic
Hot Cross Buns are such an Easter classic. Nowadays there are so many different flavours available, but nothing beats the original. As much as I do love trying out new flavours of hot cross buns, I always go back to these, I even used them in my Hot Cross Bun Bread and Butter Pudding.
Hot Cross Bun Dough
For the basic hot cross bun dough, you need to use strong white bread flour. Bread flour has a higher protein content compared with plain flour. This means that it produces more gluten resulting in a bread dough with more elasticity and structure. Perfect for our hot cross buns.
I used fast-action dried yeast in this recipe. This yeast doesn’t need to be added to any liquid to be activated it can simply be added to the dough. Depending on the type of yeast you have though, you might need to activate it by mixing it with the milk first. Just check the directions on the packet before using it.
In this bread dough, you also need to use unsalted butter rather than a baking spread. Unsalted butter has a higher fat content making a much better bread dough.
Proving
The hot cross bun dough needs to be proven twice. The first prove should be done once you have kneaded your dough. The dough should be transferred to a lightly oiled bowl and left for around 1-2 hours or until doubled in size.
The bowl should be covered with cling film or a tea towel and left in a warm place. I always leave mine in the kitchen as it tends to be the warmest room in the house. You could also put it on a windowsill if it is warm outside or near a warm radiator.
Related Recipes
Hot Cross Bun Bread and Butter Pudding
Once the dough has doubled in size it should be kneaded or ‘knocked back’ before being split into 12 individual portions. The dough should then be proven for the second time.
For the second prove put the individual buns onto a lined tray around 1cm apart. You know they will be ready to bake because they will have doubled in size again and should all be touching each other.
Flavour Ideas
As these are traditional hot cross buns I went with traditional flavours. In these hot cross buns, I used cinnamon, ginger, mixed spice and orange zest which gives them an incredible flavour.
There are so many different flavour combinations you could use. For example, in this recipe I use raisins but you could use a combination of raisins and sultanas. Or maybe just sultanas. You could also replace the sultanas with things like chocolate chips. It is completely up to you.
Other flavour ideas could be using extra cinnamon and replacing the orange zest with grated apple for apple and cinnamon hot cross buns or adding freeze-dried raspberries and white chocolate chips for raspberry and white chocolate hot cross buns. The possibilities are endless.
Alternatives
Head to the flavours idea section for some alternative flavour combinations.
Equipment
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Hot Cross Buns
Ingredients
For the Hot Cross Buns
- 225 ml Whole Milk
- 500 g Strong White Bread Flour
- 75 g Caster Sugar
- 8 g Fast-Action Dried Active Yeast
- 2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1 tsp Ground Mixed Spice
- 1 tsp Ground Ginger
- Zest of 1 Orange
- 50 g Unsalted Butter
- 50 g Mixed Peel
- 250 g Raisins
- 2 Large Eggs
For the Topping
- 50 g Plain Flour
- 30-40 ml Cold Water
- Apricot Jam
Instructions
To Make the Hot Cross Buns
- Add the milk to a heatproof bowl and heat in the microwave in short bursts until just steaming.
- Add the flour, sugar, yeast, cinnamon, mixed spice, ginger and orange zest to a large bowl. Add the butter and rub between your fingers until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
- To the bowl add your warmed milk, mixed peel, raisins and eggs and mix together until fully combined.
- Knead the mixture for 5-10 minutes until it is smooth and springy.
- Transfer the dough to a clean but lightly oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with clingfilm or a clean tea towel and leave to rise for 1-2 hours or until doubled in size.
- Once the dough has risen remove it from the bowl and knead on a lightly floured surface for 1-2 minutes to "knock back."
- Split the dough evenly into 12 balls. Put each ball onto a lined tray (I did four rows of three balls) around 1cm apart.
- Cover the lined tray with cling film and leave to prove for 60 minutes. Towards the end of the prove preheat your oven to 200C (180C Fan).
- Add the 50g of plain flour to a bowl and gradually add in the water. Mix after each addition until a thick paste is formed.
- Pipe the paste onto the top of your buns to give you the crosses.
- Bake the hot cross buns in the oven for 20-25 minutes, they should be golden in colour.
- Once baked, brush the buns with apricot jam to make them sticky and shiny.
Notes
- These hot cross buns will last around 3 days if stored in an airtight container but are best on the day of baking.
- The hot cross buns can be frozen for up to 3 months.
- There are so many different flavour combinations you can try. Head to the flavour ideas section for some ideas.
- You could also add mixed peel to these or swap out some of the spices for allspice or clove for example.
- You could also replace the raisins with chocolate chips to make these chocolatey.