Hot Cross Bun Recipe
I’m normally a long-fermentation snob where it comes to bread, but frankly with all the spices in these little guys it’s mighty hard to pick up the subtleties that a long rise offers. A full tablespoon of instant yeast blows this dough up in no time — foom — which means from mixing to glazing, you can have these done in about four hours.
1 lb. 9 ounces (5 cups) bread flour
1 tablespoon instant yeast
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups warm milk
1/4 cup honey
2 eggs, room temperature
4 tablespoons soft butter
1/2 cup dark raisins
1/2 cup golden raisins
egg wash
simple icing
Place the raisins in a bowl and add enough water to barely cover them. Microwave them for about a minute until the water boils. Allow them to sit about 15 minutes to plump and cool. Put flour, yeast spices and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the beater (paddle) attachment. Turn on low to blend. In a medium bowl combine milk, honey, eggs and whisk lightly to combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of the mixer as it’s running and continue to stir until the flour mixture is completely moistened. Turn off the mixer and switch to the dough hook. Turn the mixer up to medium and add the butter and raisins. Knead 5-7 minutes until the dough comes together in a soft ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size (about 1 1/2 hours).
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Cut the dough into 18 pieces (they should weigh a little over 3 ounces each). Shape the pieces into buns according to the How to Shape Buns and Rolls instructions under the bread how-to’s on the right. Place the rolls on parchment-lined sheet pans and spray lightly with cooking spray. Cover gently with greased plastic wrap and let rise until almost doubled in size, about another 30-45 minutes (they should be puffy, but the dough should spring back some when you poke it).
Paint the buns with egg wash and score the tops of them in a criss-cross pattern. Bake for about 20 minutes or until well browned. Cool thoroughly on a wire rack. When completely cooled, drizzle on simple icing in a cross shape, or use a pastry bag if you prefer!
I’ve always wanted to do hot cross buns where the cross on top is made with a flour/water paste, or some other baked-on substance. Last time I tried it, if I recall correctly, I found recipes where you rolled out thin pastry strips, and ones where you painted the paste on top, and maybe another variant. All I can recall of my attempt was that the cross disappeared during the baking. 🙁
Got a technique for something like that?
Hi Nancy!
Reader Bronwyn just commented about that. I’ve never tried it, but I’ve always thought it looked great. I’ll see if I can find any other wisdom about it. Cheers,
– Joe
I have made sourdough Hot Cross buns, and they are actually not as nice as yeast ones. The sourdough flavour clashes a bit with the spices IMO.
I don’t use eggs and butter though, I love my buns chewy instead of soft. Don’t add sugar or honey either, the fruit is enough sweetness.
To make a baked cross (I always do it like this, icing is too sweet) you make a paste of flour and water with a bit of oil or some other fat, and pipe it over the buns just before they go in the oven. The fat is just to stop it turning to concrete. Consistency should be pipe-able, obviously. You can roll out a thicker dough, but it’s bit of a pain.
Nice tips, Bronwyn! I know there are some readers out there who’d like to do this sort of cross on top. Thank you!
– Joe
Joe, I’ve seen recipes for hot cross buns which use malt powder / malt extract to sweeten and darken the buns slightly. Have you seen this, and where do you stand on it?
–Chris
I’ve seen that as well, Chris. Malt powder is used in many breads for the same reason. I’m not against it, I just generally try to write recipes that don’t call for much in the way of harder-to-find ingredients. You can add half a cup or so of malt powder to this recipe if you like (diastatic is best if you can find it).
Cheers,
– Joe
How timely your blog post is! I’ve just moved to the USA, but back home in New Zealand, grocery store bakeries will be churning out hundreds of hot cross buns every day. They’re usually fantastic quality, and so delicious split in half, toasted and slathered generously with salted butter. Since I can’t easily get my fix here, I did a little searching for a recipe yesterday and came across several with the piped icing cross on top – something I’ve never seen or heard of!! In NZ buns always have a baked cross on top, made like Bronwyn says – simply butter rubbed into flour, mixed to a pipeable consistency with milk or water.
Anyhow, do you think it would be possible to make this recipe without a stand mixer?
Hello Ana!
Yes, we here in the States do like a little indulgence on our hot cross buns — hence the icing!
But test you certainly can do this without a stand mixer. I’m just addicted to machines. The dough can be easily mixed and kneaded by hand like any other bread. Just flour your hands if it get sticky.
Let me know how they turn out!
– Joe
In my family it’s traditional to make crosses from thin pieces of marzipan, placed on-top before baking. The marzipan goes all gooey and caramelised. It’s what Jane Grigson suggests in English Food, and it’s great if you like marzipan.
I love that idea, Cate! Thank you.
– Joe
Joe, is it a reasonable option to fridge/freeze at some step? Whether it’s pre/post baking, I don’t want to devote hours in the wee of the morning to make these fresh for church on Sunday, but I’d like to have them be ‘great’ when I bring them in. Of course the icing will have to wait for the morning, but if I can do the majority of the other steps today, that’d be great.
Hey Roger!
Sorry for the late reply. You can refrigerate or freeze them after shaping (forming them into buns). Just add an extra half hour or so to the proofing time of they’re refrigerated, and thaw them overnight in the refrigerator (then add an extra half hour to the proofing time) if they’ve been froze.
Cheers,
– Joe
I make hot cross buns every year and we love them! I think I am going to give your recipe a whirl this year because it looks SO good. Thank you for sharing Joe!
My pleasure — and let me know what you think, Rachel!
– Joe
Hi Joe! I had a lot of trouble scoring the cross into the top of my proofed buns. They taste delicious (especially with extra icing- I made mine with browned butter and nutmeg) but they are not the beautiful little spheres they were.
Have you ever had any trouble with this? I was using a very sharp knife.