Hot cross buns are not only delicious, but they also make for a timeless Easter recipe.
What exactly are hot cross buns?
Aside from being a very catchy nursery rhyme, what are hot cross buns? They are actually buns that you can eat that date all the way back to the 12th century. Hot cross buns are a dessert made from yeast that are sweet and loaded with spices and different fruits such as raisins, currents, or other candied citrus. They are topped off with a white cross that’s either coated on top or marked into the dough with icing. Hot cross buns are a classic Easter food that are typically served on Good Friday but can be enjoyed throughout the year.
What do hot cross buns they taste like?
Hot cross buns are traditionally a cross between a cinnamon roll and a dinner roll. They are soft, yet dense and delightfully spiced with allspice, nutmeg, and cinnamon, though you can use whatever spices you prefer such as cardamom. The sweetness of the buns is primarily from brown sugar combined with the delicious orange icing. For even more flavor, feel free to add some candied orange peel or orange zest into the dough.
If you enjoy buttery bread, raisins, cinnamon, brown sugar, and orange icing, then you will love hot cross buns!
So, how do you make hot cross buns?
The recipe begins much like a recipe for dinner rolls. You will need basic baking ingredients such as yeast, flour, eggs, butter, milk, and sugar for hot cross buns. Adding more butter and more eggs with less milk will produce a denser, not heavy, roll. Hot cross buns are supposed to be more of a breakfast or dessert roll over a dinner roll.
These are the basic steps you’ll follow:
- Mix the bread dough.
- Knead the dough
- Cover the dough to let it rise. This process will take roughly 1 to 2 hours.
- Punch the dough down to release all the air, begin shaping it into rolls.
- Allow rolls to rise for an hour.
- Draw the crosses on the top.
- Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Decorate with icing on top.
We've curated "4 Easy Hot Cross Bun Recipes That Anyone Can Make" each with there own unique flavour and taste.
These recipes will teach you how to make them perfectly using spiced yeast dough. Each bun is infused with butter, brown sugar, raisins , currents or chocolate then topped with the traditional cross. Finished off with icing.
Enjoy
1. The World’s Easiest Hot Cross Buns recipe
RecipeTinEats Hot Cross Buns Recipe
We like this recipe because it's super simple to make. There is also a no knead recipe right at the bottom of the post for those who don't feel for the knead work out. You can print it out too so that it can be easily followed.
2.Easy Nutella Stuffed Hot Cross Buns
Foodies SA Nutella Stuffed Hot Cross Buns
Another great recipe from Foodies SA. Really easy to make to. What makes this recipe unique from the others recipes is that the is a touch of yogurt to make the dough nice and fluffy and a hint of nutella to give it a nice warm dessert feel.