Many people have messaged us asking for a Hot Cross Bun recipe to try at home. So here we go, just in time for Easter weekend! Two things to remember: while we use an electric mixer in this video, you can definitely mix this dough by hand. Start with a spoon, and then get stuck in with your hands. Enjoy!
Hot Cross Buns:
Makes 24 buns
Ingredients:
Bun dough:
750g flour
20g salt
75g sugar
60g wet yeast or 20g instant yeast (we use wet yeast in the video, but either will do)
75g oil
450g water
25g mixed spice
Fruit:
265g Mixed fruit
75g pecan nuts
75g apricots
75g boiling water
Cross Batter:
100g cake flour
35g corn flour
40g oil
110g water
5g baking powder
Bun Glaze:
100g water
100g sugar
5g whole cloves
Before you begin:
1. Soak your fruit and nuts in the boiling water for 30 minutes.
Buns:
2. Place the flour, sugar and salt in the mixing bowl and blend together.
3. Crumble the yeast over the flour.
4. Add the oil and water.
5. Mix with a dough hook attachment on slow speed for 8 minutes, or by hand using a spoon to start and your hands as it comes together. You’ll know the dough is properly mixed when you can pull it gently between your fingers into a thin, see-through layer without it breaking (this is called the window test).
6. Drain the fruit mixture using a sieve and add it to the dough, along with the mixed spice.
7. Mix together on a slow speed until the fruit and spice is evenly dispersed throughout the dough.
8. Remove the dough from your bowl and place it on a lightly floured table. Knead the dough into a round ball.
9. Place the dough back into the mixing bowl, cover with a damp cloth and leave to rise for 30 minutes, or until the dough is roughly doubled in size.
10. Divide the dough into 80g dough balls and round them up gently.
11. Place your dough balls onto a greased pan or a pan lined with baking paper.
12. Leave at least 2cm between each bun to allow for expansion during proving.
13. Cover the buns with shrink wrap and leave to prove for 1-3 hours at room temperature, or until the buns double in size.
Bun Glaze:
14. Place all bun glaze ingredients in a pot a bring to the boil. Boil for 3 minutes.
15. Remove from heat and cool.
Cross Batter:
16. Pre-heat the oven to 220°C.
17. Place all your cross batter ingredients into a mixing bowl.
18. Using the whisk attachment on your electric mixer, or a hand whisk, whisk the ingredients together until the mixture is smooth and free of lumps.
19. Place the batter into a plastic piping bag. If you don’t have a piping bag, a sandwich bag with a corner snipped off works just as well!
20. Snip a 4mm whole into the piping bag/sandwich bag and pipe a cross onto each bun.
Baking:
21. Once you have completed all steps above, pop those buns in the oven and bake for 15-16 minutes until they take on a nice golden brown colour.
22. Remove the buns from the oven and immediately glaze with bun glaze.
23. Enjoy!