Hot Cross Buns
The Dish
Hot Cross Buns
Best for: Breakfast, snack
Serves: 12
Prep time: 2 hours
Cook time: 20 mins
Hot cross buns are honestly one of my favourite snacks - hot from the oven and drenched in butter, there really is nothing better.
HOWEVER, I normally make them using bread flour, but that appears to be like gold dust at the minute. So, I have played around and tweaked a few things here and there, and developed this recipe which hopefully, you can all follow at home.
The Recipe
Step 1
Make the candied peel. Use a zester to move the rind from the orange, if you don’t have a zester, use a vegetable peeler. Peel the rind, ensuring not to get the pith, then slice into very fine strips. Blanch in boiling water 3 times, changing the water each time - this will remove the bitterness. In a saucepan add 200ml of water and 2 tbsp caster sugar, add the orange peel and leave to gently simmer for 15 mins. After 15 mins remove peel onto a paper towel and blot dry.
Step 2
Add the sugar and yeast to the warm milk and mix until the sugar and yeast have dissolved, cover with cling film and set aside until it becomes frothy.
Step 3
Sieve the flour into a bowl and mix in the spices, lemon zest and salt.
Step 4
Melt the butter and add it to the milk mixture.
Step 5
Add half the milk mixture to the dry ingredients and mix with a fork, then add the eggs and mix well. Now add the remaining milk mixture. Use your hands to bring mixture together to form a dough – it shouldn’t be too sticky. (if it is too sticky, simply add a touch more flour, only abit at a time though.)
Step 6
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, incorporate the raisins, sultanas and candied peel and knead the dough for 10 mins until silky smooth, then shape into a ball.
Step 7
Oil a large bowl to place the dough in, cover the bowl with cling film and leave in a warm place for 1 hour 15 mins until the dough has doubled in size.
Step 8
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and divide into 12 equal balls. Grease a large deep-dish baking tray and add the balls, placing them fairly close together and slightly press them down. Cover the tray with cling film, ensuring the cling film doesn’t touched the buns. Leave tray in the same warm place for 30 mins.
Step 9
Preheat oven, fan 200 degrees.
Step 10
For the crosses: Mix the flour and water into a smooth paste and transfer to a piping bag. If you don’t have a piping bag, transfer the mixture into a sandwich bag and when ready to use, snip off one of the corners creating a small hole – there you go, homemade piping bag.
Pipe crosses onto the buns and bake for 20 mins until golden brown.
Step 11
Heat the syrup in a pan or in a microwave for 20 seconds. Once the buns are done and still warm, brush a layer of the syrup on each bun creating a glaze.
INGREDIENTS
Buns
300ml warm milk
70g caster sugar
14g active dried yeast (two sachets)
630g plain flour
60g butter, melted
1 tbsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp salt
300g raisins/sultanas – I used a mixture of both
Zest of 1 small lemon
Candied peel - instructions below.
2 medium eggs
For the Candied Peel
1 large orange
2 tbsp caster sugar
For the Crosses
75g plain flour
100ml water
For the Glaze
2 tbsp golden syrup
