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This week I have posted my Hot Cross Loaf and Hot Cross Cookie recipes but this was my first ever attempt at Hot Cross Buns. I looked at a variety of recipes and came up with this one to suit our tastes.
This recipe does not have any bread improver in it. If I’m making bread for friends and don’t want to risk it being a flop I’ll add just a little in. If you want to ensure you have nice soft fluffy bread I recommend adding 2 teaspoons of bread improver along with the flour. See my bread tips here.
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Hot Cross Buns
Description
This recipe makes 18 large buns or 16 medium sized buns. The choice is yours!
Ingredients
Scale
Bun dough
- 300ml water
- 4 tsp dried yeast
- 1/2 Tbsp of fine orange zest (or mixed peel if preferred)
- 60g butter, softened
- 520g bakers flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 egg
- 45g honey
- 15g brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground spice, or to taste
- 110g sultanas
Cross
- 2.5 Tbsp water, you may need more
- 4 Tbsp self raising flour
Glaze
- 60g water
- 40g sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
Then mix like this
- Line a shallow baking dish with baking paper in preparation for baking.
- Place water and yeast into bowl. Cook at 2 minutes / 37C / Speed 2.
- Add butter, flour, salt, honey, sugar, egg, spices and zest. Speed 7 / 5 seconds. Then program Closed Lid / 6 minutes / Kneading Speed.
- Add sultanas. Knead for 30 seconds or until just combined. It will be a slightly sticky dough but workable. Oil your hands before handling the dough if it is very sticky.
- Carefully remove dough from the bowl into an oiled bowl and place somewhere warm for one hour or until doubled in size.
- Remove dough from bowl and divide into 8-16 (depending on size you want) even balls. Place buns close together in the baking dish. Place in a warm spot and allow them to double in size.
- Preheat oven to 200C.
- Add cross ingredients, flour and water into clean bowl. Speed 4 until well combined. Add a drizzle of extra water if needed to thin it slightly. Be sure not to thin it too much, you need a thick paste.
- Carefully place the paste into a piping bag with a fine tip (or zip lock bag with the corner snipped). Snip the corner and pipe a cross onto the buns.
- Place tray into the oven and bake for 30-45 minutes depending on the size of your buns. You may need to cook a little longer.
- Add the glaze ingredients into the bowl. 4 minutes / 100C / Speed 2 or until the sugar is dissolved.
- Carefully remove cooked buns from oven. Carefully brush with the glaze. After 5 minutes repeat the glaze. Place into the oven for 5 minutes. This will give it an extra shine.
- Remove from oven and carefully place onto a wire rack to cool. Best served the day of making.
Wow! These are seriously amazing! I have never made such light and fluffy buns before! This will definitely be my go-to recipe from now on! Thank you!
So delicious! Can’t stop eating them. Thank you.
Hubby is making choc chip flavour after making then on normal ones on the weekend. Everyone loves how fluffy they are and yummy they are, another winner thank you.
Thanks for a great recipe. Even with a few careless mistakes by me with the method along the way, they still came out great – the flavour is amazing – just like my mother used to make! That was the practice run – have plenty of time to do more batches before Easter! I’ve posted the recipe link with the photo I’ve posted for my friends on Facebook.
These were awesome! I left out the saultanas & peel and added in some choc chips & they are fabulous, the kids loved them!!
My dough was super sticky (to the point it was almost unworkable, I just put them in blobs on the tray)…..should I just knead it a bit longer next time?
Just add a little extra flour next time. A sticky dough is good though as long as you can work with it 🙂
Super easy, super delish!
I tried one batch as per recipe, and another with a tsp of bread improved and chocolate chips instead of the fruit. Both batches were awesome.
Only suggestion, make 12 buns, otherwise they end up huge!! (Which is not a bad thing, just a preference)
I’ve tried about 4 different recipes for hot cross buns over Easter, and this was my families favourite. I added extra cinnamon (about 2.5 tablespoons) and 2 teaspoons of mixed spice.
These are great! I’ve even made them with plain flour & 2 tsp bread improver, and reduced the water to 240g (using half water/half milk). The dough is a little sticky but I get such a good rise, they are fluffy and delicious every time. Thank you for a lovely recipe!