I grew up in a pretty isolated part of New Zealand, which meant that bakery or supermarket supplied hot cross buns were not a possibility. My mother, who was extremely good at innovating home versions of things we couldn’t get easily, would make us lightly spiced, stickily glazed buns from the Australian Women’s Weekly Classics cookbook every year.
This recipe is adapted from that original recipe – largely to incorporate the more widely available active dried yeast, and to use a mixer, but I’ve tweaked a few other things as well. I highly recommend bothering with the gelatine glaze unless you are a vegetarian, it adds a lot to the whole thing.
You can vary the spice amount if you like yours with more spice, or vary the fruit and include things like mixed fruit or candied peel. You can skip crosses and even glaze if you want to. But this is a solid, easy simple hot cross bun recipe – it has a lot of steps, but most of them are just waiting for yeast to do it’s thing, and the mixer does all the hard work. If you don’t have a mixer, you could hand knead, but be careful not to incorporate too much flour while doing so. That is obviously a bit more of a mission. A bread machine may do the job nicely, but I don’t have a bread machine, so experiment on your own recognisance.
Hot Cross Buns
Course: Family Recipes, Filling The Tins15
servings2
hours20
minutesAn easy and delicious make at home hot cross bun recipe, complete with crosses and sticky sweet glaze.
Ingredients
4 cups plain flour (ideally high grade, but standard works)
1 extra teaspoon of flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 extra teaspoon of sugar
2 teaspoons of active dried yeast
1 1/2 cups milk, warmed
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
60 grams butter
1 egg
1 cup of sultanas (or dried fruit of choice)
- Crosses
1/2 cup plain flour
1/3 cup water
- Glaze
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon plain gelatine
1 tablespoon boiling water
Directions
- Mix yeast with extra teaspoons of sugar and flour, and then mix into warm milk and leave to sit for ten to fifteen minutes or until mixture is frothy.
- In the meantime, sift remaining flour and sugar with salt and spices into the mixing bowl of a stand mixer.
- Melt the butter.
- Break and beat the egg.
- When yeast mixture is ready, add yeast and milk mixture to the dry ingredients in the mixtures, along with melted butter and beaten egg.
- Mix with a dough hook until well combined, then add sultanas and mix just until incorporated.
- Remove dough hook, cover bowl with a clean cloth and leave to rise for forty minutes.
- Punch dough down with dough hook attached, and then knead with dough hook in mixer until dough is smooth and elastic. This is quite a wet dough, resist any urge to add more flour.
- Cut dough into three equal pieces, and then each piece into five, for fifteen buns total.
- Knead each ball of dough into a round bun shape by folding edges into centre on one side repeatedly.
- Place buns in a lightly greased tin of approximately 28-30cm by about 18cm, with sides – eg a lamington pan or a quarter sheet pan
- Stand pan in a warm place for ten to thirty minutes – or until buns have risen to one and a half times as big. A good warm place is near a preheating oven (185 degrees C on fanbake)
- Meanwhile, sift 1/2 cup of plain flour for crosses and mix well with 1/3 cup water, and place in a sturdy plastic bag with the corner cut off (you can mix it in the bag if you want, but make sure it’s evenly combined).
- Pipe crosses, or esoteric designs of your own choosing on buns when they have finished rising.
- Bake in a hot oven (185 degrees C on fanbake) for fifteen to twenty minutes, until tops are golden brown.
- Immediately brush with glaze made by dissolving gelatine and sugar in hot water.
- Allow to cool a little and then devour. Any not devoured can be eaten cold, or reheated a little in a microwave. Excellent with butter.
