Hot Cross Bun Recipes

I'm thinking of making these for work colleagues shortly before Easter - but want enough time to have a couple of trial runs first!
Does anyone have a fool-proof recipe? Keep in mind that I don't have an oven at work - so they are going to have to be OK (and not stale) the following day. Any help would be appreciated!

Do you have a breadmaker?

I use 2 recipes depending on my taste at the time, both are yummy.
First one if via Breadmaker Richard's Till but adapted to suit.
I love these (breadmaker recipe) along with my other Easter Bun recipe.

Hot cross buns adapted from a Richard Till’s Recipe

Place all into breadmaker on the Dough cycle only;

1/2 cup hot water
1tsp vanilla essence
1 cup milk
100g butter
1 egg
4 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tabs mixed spice
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp cocoa
2 Tabs sugar
2 Tabs dried yeast

Add into the dough after finished in breadmaker.
1 cup dried mixed fruit

Knead then cut into 20 pieces and form into buns.
Placed into a shallow tin about .5 to a cm apart.
Let rise until more or less doubled, make cross slash in top before baking and cook 225C for 12-15 minutes.
Bring out of oven and glaze immediately with two teaspoons of sugar mixed in heated 1 1/2 tspns of water.

Normal hand made version of above.

Hot cross buns
1 cup milk
1/2 cup hot water
2 Tabs sugar
2 Tabs dried yeast
2 cups flour
100g butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tabs mixed spice
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp cocoa
1tsp vanilla essence
1 cup dried mixed fruit
2 1/2 cups of flour
Mix milk, hot water and 2 Tabs of sugar in metal bowl.
Sprinkle in yeast. Leave to stand until bubbles appear.
Add 2 cups of flour and leave to stand.
Cream butter and sugar, add egg, salt, spices, cocoa and vanilla. Combine the two mixtures and add mixed fruit. Add remaining flour to make firmer dough.
Knead well.
Leave to rise until doubled.
Knead then cut into 20 pieces and form into buns.
Let rise until more or less doubled, make cross slash in top before baking and cook 225C for 12-15 minutes.
Bring out of oven and glaze immediately with two teaspoons of sugar mixed in heated 1 1/2 tspns of water.

Easter Buns –Highlander Milk ( makes about 20 buns ) Breadmaker dough method

3/4 cup warm water ( blood heat ),
½ cup Highlander condensed milk,
50 g butter melted,
1 egg beaten,
1 tsp salt,
4 cups flour,
(if doing a choc dough, add in say 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoon plus of cocoa to desired tastes),
1 tablespoon mixed spice,
½ tsp ground nutmeg,
1 tsp cinnamon,
4 tsps surebake yeast
2 tsps sugar.

To mix in after dough is mixed.
1 cup currants,
½ cup mixed peel,
Or 1 ½ cups small choc buttons as an alternative.
For the Glaze;-
1 tablespoon water,
1 tsp gelatine and
1 tablespoon castor sugar.
And for the Decoration:-
The crosses can be of flour –water mix or melted white choc.

Place the first 11 or (12 with cocoa) ingredients into the breadmaker pan and select dough for the dough mix.
When ready, remove the dough onto a lightly floured surface, add the currants and peel or dried fruit of choice, can add those small choc buttons as well or as an alternative to dried fruits.
Place the dough in a greased bowl.
Turn the dough over so that the top is greased.
Cover with plastic wrap.
Leave to rise in a warm place until double in size (approx 45 to 60 minutes ).
Remove the plastic wrap, punch the dough down by pushing your fist to the bottom of the bowl. Turn out and divide into 20 even sized pieces.
Shape each piece of dough into a round bun.
Keep the dough covered with plastic wrap at all times when not being worked.
Place the buns on a slightly greased oven tray at least 5cm apart or 1cm apart in a greased shallow rectangular sponge roll or cake tin.
Cover with greased wrap and leave to rise in a warm place until the buns are doubled in size ( approx 45 minutes ).
Bake in preheated oven 200c for about 15 to 20 minutes or until the buns are well risen and golden brown.
While the buns are baking, prepare the glaze.
Place the water in a shallow bowl and sprinkle gelatine over.
Stand for 5 minutes or until the gelatine swells.
Add the castor sugar.
Heat gently over hot water until the gelatine and sugar dissolve.
Remove the buns from the oven.
Brush with the glaze and place on a rack to cool.
When cold, decorate the buns.
Place the choc in a bowl, bring a small quantity of water to the boil in a saucepan.
Remove from heat and place the bowl of choc firmly on top.
Stir while the choc melts.
Place the melted choc in a piping bag or in a plastic bag with one corner snipped off, pipe a cross on top of each bun.

Note, makes a lovely loaf especially if using choc buttons, by using a well greased lined loaf tin and allowing a little bit more baking time and at say 180C.

Easter Buns ( makes about 20 buns ) Hand made normal mixed.

¼ cup warm water ( blood heat ),
¼ tsp sugar,
1 tablespoon dried yeast,
4 cups flour,
1 tsp salt,
1 tablespoon mixed spice,
½ tsp ground nutmeg,
1 tsp cinnamon,
1 cup currants,
½ cup mixed peel,
50 g butter melted,
½ cup Highlander condensed milk,
½ cup warm water approximately and
1 egg beaten.
For the Glaze;-
1 tablespoon water,
1 tsp gelatine and
1 tablespoon castor sugar.
And for the Decoration:- ½ to 1 cup white Choc melts.

Place ¼ cup warm water and sugar in a shallow bowl, sprinkle yeast over and stand in warm place until mixture is frothy.
Place the flour, salt, spices and dried fruit in a large bowl and mix together.
Make a well in the centre of dry ingredients.
Combine the butter, condensed milk and the second lot of warm water.
Check that the mixture is just warm.
Pour the yeast mixture into the well, add the liquid mixture and the egg.
Mix well, adding a little more water or flour if necessary to make a soft slightly sticky dough.
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 8 – 10 minutes or until the dough springs back when pressed lightly.
Place the dough in a greased bowl.
Turn the dough over so that the top is greased.
Cover with plastic wrap.
Leave to rise in a warm place until double in size (approx 45 to 60 minutes ).
Remove the plastic wrap, punch the dough down by pushing your fist to the bottom of the bowl. Turn out and divide into 20 even sized pieces.
Shape each piece of dough into a round bun.
Keep the dough covered with plastic wrap at all times when not being worked.
Place the buns on a slightly greased oven tray at least 5cm apart or 1cm apart in a greased shallow rectangular sponge roll or cake tin.
Cover with greased wrap and leave to rise in a warm place until the buns are doubled in size ( approx 45 minutes ).
Bake in preheated oven 200c for about 20 minutes or until the buns are well risen and golden brown.
While the buns are baking, prepare the glaze.
Place the water in a shallow bowl and sprinkle gelatine over.
Stand for 5 minutes or until the gelatine swells.
Add the castor sugar.
Heat gently over hot water until the gelatine and sugar dissolve.
Remove the buns from the oven.
Brush with the glaze and place on a rack to cool.
When cold, decorate the buns.
Place the choc in a bowl, bring a small quantity of water to the boil in a saucepan.
Remove from heat and place the bowl of choc firmly on top.
Stir while the choc melts.
Place the melted choc in a piping bag or in a plastic bag with one corner snipped off, pipe a cross on top of each bun.
One can mix the above bun part of the recipe in a bread-maker but only for dough mixing.
Follow the manual re order of ingredients, usually liquids, then solid – liquids, then egg, salt, flours, spices, leave out the dried fruit at this stage in breadmaker, sugar, then finally yeast.
When finished in bread-maker, punch the dough down on a floured surface, then add the dried fruit and mix and knead into the dough, then divide and continue as in above recipe.

To nominate only one recipe would go with a more normal mix like the first one, Richard Till's recipe adapted and is simply yummy, everyone loves these.

Hmmmm, they also love the Easter Bun recipe as well but that has the added advantage of a nice yummy loaf instead of buns especially with the addition of some wee chocolate buttons in the mix.

Cheers.

valentino - thanks so much for all these different versions! I can't wait to get started!

elliehen - thanks for the muffin idea - just awesome, and will certainly keep better than buns.

I think the 1st recipe of valentinos and elliehens muffins sound yummo. will try both,thanks

What yeast do you recommend to use Valentino? I usually have the Edmonds red lid yeast on hand.

I normally use Edmonds "Surebake", please check the expiry date if buying.

Cheers

Thanks valentino - thats the one I usually use and yes I always dig around on the supermarket shelf for the freshest pot. Its amazing at times HOW many 'use by dates' for products are on supermarket shelves for products. I often find things that have or are about to expire tho usually they can still be safely used. Not good stock rotation tho.

bump to keep up front till l can c&p

bump, have a breadmaker, and keen as to try, luckily i have access to dreid fruit at a great price. Could the "normal" flour be substituted for say, Rice Flour as a gluten free alternative? (Can't get "normal" flour cheap at work, but can get Rice Flour, i know, tight a***ss much)

Made the Richard Till ones tonight and they are nice but hubby says they are lacking something but not sure what l didn't put any mixed peel in, only sultanas, raisins and currants
l thought maybe a bit more salt 1/2 teaspoon more?

l will try the Easter buns recipe in a few days time and let you know the results

These are mine, adapted and tweaked to be the best. And they remain soft to the next day.There is no reason why the dough couldn't be prepared in a breadmaker, adding the sultanas halfway through the second knead.

Hot cross buns

1 c sultanas or currents
Place in a pot, cover with water, bring to the boil, simmer for five minutes, drain.

50g (2 oz) butter
1/4 c brown sugar
1 1/4 c milk
3 1/2 c flour – unbleached or high grade
1 tsp salt
1 tsp mixed spice
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 tsp active yeast, heaped (tasti breadmaker is recommended)

For the crosses
1/3 c flour
1 dsp icing sugar
1 tbsp oil (olive light)
cold water

In a pot melt the butter, and the milk, heat till luke warm.
In a large glass bowl place flour, salt, sugar, spices, fruit, mix. Make a well.
Pour the milk in the flour well. Sprinkle yeast on top, knock below the surface. Set aside in a warm place (oven at 55C is ideal), for 10-15 mins till this is frothy.
Using a dinner knife slowly work in the ingredients in the bowl working from centre to outside, till it is worked in. Add more tepid milk if necessary. (At this stage it can be left in the fridge overnight, take it out, knead it slightly and leave it to return to room temperature for about an hour before continuing on.)
Tip on to floured bench and knead for four to five minutes, don’t hesitate to add more flour, your dough should not be sticky, nor dry.
Divide dough into 12 even pieces with a board scraper, knife or scissors. Shape each piece into a round roll and arrange them in rows in a shallow baking paper lined tray about 1cm apart.
Cover with cling wrap (or place in a water sprayed oven) and let rise for 25 minutes. They will double in size.
Make the crosses paste by mixing the flour, icing sugar, oil and cold water till a thick paste. Place in a small sealable snack bag, snip a small corner. Pipe a cross on top of the buns. Bake 220C for 20 minutes until golden brown and hollow sounding

While the buns are still hot you can glaze the buns with the mixture of 1/4 c caster sugar and 2 tbsp warm water, if you desire.

Hi again valentino, I have finally made this recipe and waiting for the buns to double in size before baking. They look great so far. Noticed in your recipe you have ½ cup of sugar then further down in the ingredients list there is 2 tablespoons of sugar. This second amount didn't appear to be part of the recipe for the glaze. I decided to put in around 3 tablespoons of sugar after looking thru other recipes to see what had been used. Which is correct for the recipe - the ½ cup or the 2 tablespoons or was the 2 tablespoons meant to be some other ingredient?

The 2nd lot of sugar is where the yeast is placed upon, helps with the activation of the yeast being in direct contact, (if that makes sense to you).

Please do all as noted.

Cheers

Thanks valentino - unfortunately I only put in 3 tablespoons of sugar altogether so hopefully the buns will be sweet enough!

The buns were excellent and yes could have been sweeter tho they tasted pretty good as they were. I will put in the ½ cup next time and maybe more mixed spice would be good. Otherwise they were great and worth making again. Thanks for the recipe!

more great Easter treats .

HOT CROSS CHOCOLATE MUFFINS
This really is Easter-in-one hit.
JEREMY AND JANE STRODE
(Herald March 24, 2013)

Ingredients
120g butter
250g dark chocolate buttons
2 cups self raising flour
3 tbsp cocoa
1 cup sugar
1 tsp mixed spice
1 pinch salt
120g sultanas
1 tbsp mixed peel
190ml milk
3 eggs
1 tbsp lemon juice
100g white chocolate
Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with patty cases.
Melt butter and 150g chocolate buttons over simmering water, stir until smooth. Sift dry ingredients into a bowl. Stir through remaining chocolate buttons, sultanas and mixed peel. Combine milk, eggs and lemon juice in a jug and pour into flour mixture. Pour in melted chocolate and stir until just combined.
Spoon mix evenly into patty cases. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until firm to touch. When cool enough to handle, place on a wire rack to finish cooling.
Melt white chocolate* over a saucepan of just-boiled water. Pipe white chocolate crosses over the muffins (bearing in mind that white chocolate melts at a lower temperature than dark chocolate). Allow to set before serving.

This is the best recipe ever

Little & Friday's Hot Cross Buns

Ingredients

40g fresh compressed yeast (see if your local bakery will sell this to you, otherwise you can use 20g of dried yeast)

1.5 cups of lukewarm milk

125g sugar (caster)

50g butter

600g strong flour

2Tbsp Mixed Spice

2Tbsp Cinnamon

Pinch of ground cloves

Pinch of salt

3 cups sultanas

1/2 cup mixed peel

1 egg


Glaze

40g sugar

100ml water

Place in saucepan and boil together until sugar is dissolved


What to do:

1. Pour the milk over the yeast and stir to dissolve.

2. Add the sugar to the milk/yeast mixture

3. Put the dries into a bowl and stir to combine, add the milk mixture and egg and knead for approximately ten minutes. Then add the fruit to the dough and knead through until combined evenly through the dough.

4. Leave to prove for 30-40 minutes until the dough doubles in size.

5. Tip dough onto a floured bench and roll out to 4 cm thick and using a knife cut into squares approximately 4cm cubes.

6. Place on a lined tray and let it prove again until doubled in size (takes around 40 minutes)

7. Make the crosses by mixing 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup water to make a paste, pour into a piping bag and pipe over the buns

8. Place in a preheated oven 200c then turn down to 180c and bake until brown approximately 20 minutes

9. When ready remove from oven and paint glaze over the buns.

10. Prepare to have friends and family flock to your home in pursuit of the delicious scents coming from your kitchen.

This is a recipe I got from here a couple of years ago. Originally posted by lizab. A great recipe and made so many times, both as buns and as a loaf.

Into the breadpan put one and a half cups of tepid water
1 tbsp oil (or knob butter)
3 heaped cups of plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 dsstp sugar
2 tbsp milk powder (optional)
1 tbsp Surebake yeast (red lid)
1 slightly heaped tbsp each of cinnamon and mixed spice.
Set the machine to dough cycle.
After 15-20 mins add a heaped cup of raisins ( I use mixed fruit with a bit extra of mixed peel) and then leave the machine until the dough is done.
Shape into 12 balls, put into a greased roasting pan and leave, covered with a teatowel until doubled in size.
Preheat oven to fanbake 200deg. Brush tops with beaten egg and then baked for 20 mins.

These really are superb!

This is Paul Hollywood making hot cross buns with beginners using fresh apples and pears as well as dried fruit they look really tasty (8 mins).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUZE45l688k