Hot Cross Buns are a traditional Good Friday treat! These slightly sweet yeast buns are flavored with cinnamon and sprinkled with currants, lemon and orange zest.
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Have you ever made hot cross buns?
The buns are marked with a cross (hence the name) at the top, meaning a crucifix, and are usually served on Good Friday, the Friday before Easter Sunday.
Video: How to Make Hot Cross Buns
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Hot cross bun
A traditional English treat
Hot cross buns are a fairly old English tradition, dating back to the Saxons who marked buns with a cross in honor of the goddess Eostre, the goddess of light, whose feast day eventually became Easter.
Inspired by a children’s song, Garrett McCord and I teamed up over the course of several weeks to try and come up with the best hot cross bun recipe we could make. Our first attempts were surprisingly bad – dry, hard and tough.
The trick to the best hot cross buns?
The trick was actually to reduce the sugar and fat content in the dough. I’m used to thinking that adding sugar or fat makes a baked product moister, but with yeast dough, both sugar and fat can have the opposite effect, making the resulting bread chewy.
So when you limit sugar and fat, which we do in this recipe, the buns come out tender and beautiful.
How do hot cross buns taste?
Slightly sweet, these buns contain ground spices, grated orange zest and currants. They taste warm and spicy with a hint of citrus. The attached sugar crosses provide another sweet touch.
Make the cross on hot cross buns
You can make the cross on the top of the buns in three ways:
- Pipe the glaze onto the buns after Bake. You can use royal icing or a icing made from powdered sugar and milk.
- Make a paste out of flour and water, or make a shortcrust pastry out of flour and butter and pipe it onto the buns Before Bake.
- Using a sharp knife, cut a fairly deep cross into the top of the buns Before They go into the oven. The buns will bake a little flatter, but they will have the impression of the cross. No frosting or piping required.
For this recipe, after baking, we’re going to pipe crosses onto the buns with a glaze of powdered sugar and milk.
Make-ahead hot-cross buns
These hot cross buns are best eaten fresh and out of the oven. You can also shape the buns the day before, let them rise in the fridge overnight and bake them the next day. Or you can prepare the dough during the first rise, refrigerate the dough overnight, and then shape and bake the buns the next day.
These buns freeze well. When you’ve baked the buns, let them cool completely, but don’t splash the cross on top. Wrap the buns in plastic and then aluminum foil, then freeze for up to a month. Defrost overnight on the counter. Heat in a warm oven or in the microwave to eliminate any cold. Allow to cool and pipe the crosses on top before serving.
Looking for more Easter treats?
- carrot cake
- Hummingbird Cake
- Parker house rolls
- Lime meringue cake
- coconut macaroons
Hot cross bun
If you are short on time and cannot bring the eggs to room temperature, let them sit in warm water for a few minutes before using to eliminate the cold.
You can use any blend of ground spices (like cinnamon, mace, allspice, cardamom, and cloves) you like, but aim for 2 teaspoons total.
ingredients
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1 (1/4-ounce) packet dry yeast (Above 2 1/4 teaspoon)
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3/4 Cup warm milk
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1/4 Cup plus 1 teaspoon sugar
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3 1/4 to 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
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1/2 teaspoon floor cardamom
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1/2 teaspoon floor Cinammon
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1/2 teaspoon pimento
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1/4 teaspoon floor cloves
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1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
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1 teaspoon Salt
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4 tablespoon unsalted buttersoftened
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2 big eggsroom temperature
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3/4 Cup currants (can substitute half of the currants with chopped candied citrus zest)
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2 teaspoon grated Orange peel
For the glaze:
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1 big egg
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1 tablespoon milk
For the glaze
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1 1/2 teaspoon milk
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1/2 Cup powdered sugar
method
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Prove the yeast
In a bowl, stir together 1/4 cup of the warmed milk and 1 teaspoon of sugar. Sprinkle the yeast over the milk and leave for 5-10 minutes until foamy.
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Whisk together the dry ingredients
In a large bowl or the mixing bowl of an electric mixer, whisk together 3 cups flour (extra flour for later step), salt, spices, and 1/4 cup sugar.
How to measure ingredients for baking successCONTINUE READING:
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Make the dough
Make a well in the flour and add the fluffy yeast, softened butter and eggs and the remaining milk.
Using a wooden spoon or your blender’s paddle attachment, mix the ingredients together until well incorporated. The mixture should be shaggy and fairly sticky.
Add the currants, the candied peel and the orange peel.
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Knead the dough, adding more flour as needed
If using a stand mixer, switch to the dough hook attachment and start kneading on low speed. (If you don’t use a mixer, use your hands to knead.)
Slowly sprinkle in additional flour, tablespoon at a time, kneading after each addition until the flour is still slightly sticky but isn’t completely sticking to your fingers when working with it.
Total kneading time should be around 7 minutes in a mixer or 10 minutes by hand.
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Let sit 2 hours to double (first rise)
Form a ball of dough in the bowl and cover with cling film. Cover and let rise at room temperature (or in a warm place) for 2 hours until doubled in size.
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shape buns
Press down on the dough to slightly compress it. Roll the dough ball into a stick and cut in half. Put one half back in the bowl while you work with the other half. Take the half of dough you are working with and cut it into 8 equal pieces.
Take each piece and form them into mounds by placing them 1 1/2 inches apart on a greased baking sheet.
Cover with cling film and then cut the remaining dough into 8 equal pieces and pile them on a baking sheet, cover again with cling film.
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let rest 30-40 min (second rise)
Allow dough mounds to rise again at room temperature (or in a warm place) until mounds have doubled in volume, about 30-40 minutes.
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Preheat oven to 400°F.
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Brush with egg yolk
Prepare the egg wash by whisking together an egg and a tablespoon of milk.
If you wish, you can use a knife to score the top of the buns in a criss-cross pattern. You should make fairly deep cuts so that the pattern is noticeable after they’re done.
Brush the egg milk over the mounds of dough with a pasty brush. The egg wash gives them a shiny appearance as they cook.
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Bake and cool
Place on the middle shelf of the oven at 400°F and bake for 10-12 minutes, until buns are lightly browned.
Remove from the oven and let cool on the pan for a few minutes, then transfer the buns to a wire rack to cool.
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Pipe and pipe the frosting onto the buns in a criss-cross pattern
To paint a cross on the top of the buns, wait for the buns to cool (or the frosting will run). Beat the milk and powdered sugar until fluffy. Keep adding powdered sugar until you get a thick consistency.
Place in a plastic sandwich bag. Snip a small piece from the corner of the bag and use the bag to pipe two lines of frosting across each bun to form a cross.
| nutritional information (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 203 | calories |
| 5g | Fat |
| 35g | carbohydrates |
| 6g | protein |
