Hot Cross Bun Recipe

Easter weekend was an incredibly chilled affair. Frosty and I didn't have too many plans and we were able to spend a lot of time at home just chilling and enjoying being on holiday. 

One evening, we decided to get into the Easter spirit and bake some hot cross buns. Frosty searched a recipe, we popped into the shops to get the ingredients and then we began to bake. The only problem was, Frosty we didn't read the recipe the whole way through. After mixing together the basic dough mixture, we had to let the dough rise for an hour. Not too bad, it was still light outside. Then, after adding in the yummy bits and pieces like raisins, we read that we then had to let the dough rise for another hour. Hmm, at least that way it gave us time to make supper before we started to bake the buns. However, after reading that once we had broken all the pieces up, we would have to let the dough sit for another hour, by this time it was bed time and we decided to call it a day, put the dough in the fridge and go to sleep. 

Eventually, we got around to making our hot cross buns the next morning. By this time, we were extra excited for hot cross buns and I must say, they were worth the wait! 

I have slightly changed the recipe that we originally used from the BBC Good Food website. To access their recipe, click here.

Ingredients:

300 ml full cream milk
50g butter
500g bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
75g castor sugar
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
7g instant yeast
1 egg, beaten
sultanas and raisins (a handful or two, we added more than the recommended amount)
zest of one orange
1 apple (peel it, core it and chop it finely)
1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg (again, we used a bit more than what was originally recommended)
75g normal flour (for the cross)
3 tablespoons of fruit jam (apricot is recommended, we used fig, which worked just as well)

Method:

1. Bring milk to the boil, then remove from heat and add butter. Leave to cool for a few minutes.
2. Sieve the flour into a bowl and then add in the salt, yeast and sugar. Make a well in the middle of the mixture.
3. Pour in the milk and butter mixture as well as the beaten egg.
4. Mix well until you have a doughy mixture.
5. Remove the dough from the bowl and place it on a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough until smooth and elastic (+- 5 minutes).
6. Put the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover it and leave it in a warm place to rise for an hour.
7. Take the cover off the dough and add in the fruit (apple, orange zest, spices, raisins and sultanas). 
8. Knead the fruit into the dough, cover and leave in a warm place to rise for another hour.
9. Divide the dough into 15 or 16 pieces and set out on an baking tray, lined with tin foil. Don't forget to leave space for the dough to expand.
10. Leave the buns to rest for another hour. 
11. Turn your oven on and heat to 220 degrees C.
12. To make the cross, mix the normal flour with water. You can add some cinnamon and sugar to the cross paste, just for fun. Add the water one teaspoon at a time until you have a thick paste. Put this into a piping bag and pipe crosses onto each of the buns.
13. Bake for +- 20 minutes on the middle shelf of the oven, until golden brown.
14. After removing the buns from the oven, gently heat the jam, sieve out the juice (you can put the solid pieces back into your jam jar if you like) and brush this jam-juice over the buns while they're still warm, then leave the buns to cool.

Once they've cooled, we always cut the buns in half and toast our hot cross buns in the oven. Serve them with butter and cinnamon sugar and enjoy!