The BEST Hot Cross Buns!
Juicy orange-soaked sultanas, chunks of candied peel, cinnamon, mixed spice and cardamom all in a fluffy bun, this recipe makes the best hot cross buns, perfect for any Easter table!
Until I made them, I had assumed Hot Cross Buns would be quite a difficult bake to master.
But they are actually really easy!
And they taste sooooo much better than shop-bought ones, they are much fluffier, and the flavours complement each other perfectly. Trust me, once you make your own, you will never buy them again!
This spicy Hot Cross Buns recipe was inspired by my Brioche Hot Cross Buns, which have a softer and more cakey texture and are also super delicious!
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Why make these Hot Cross Buns?
Juicy sultanas soaked in orange juice ✔️
Milk flavoured with cardamom to give a slight floral undertone ✔️
Spiced with cinnamon and mixed spice✔️
Light and fluffy texture ✔️
Perfect plain or toasted with lashings of butter! ✔️
Things to Bear in Mind....
Factor in proving times:
First prove = 1-2 hours
Second prove = 45 minutes-1 hour
I mention this because I am forever forgetting to factor in proving times when I make bread or buns!
Although Hot Cross Buns only take 20 minutes to bake, you need to be careful not to overproof; the texture on the baked buns will be seriously affected.
Use the right tin
I use a large roasting tin measuring to bake Hot Cross Buns, Brioche Hot Cross Buns, Cinnamon and Maple Syrup Buns and Blueberry Cinnamon Rolls.
This tin bakes the buns evenly and ensures they keep their shape.
Ingredients and Substitutions
See the Recipe card below for the exact quantities
- Sultanas
Or you can use raisins or mixed fruit. If using mixed fruit, don't add additional mixed peel; simply increase your mixed fruit by another 50 grams. - Mixed peel
- Milk
(Whole or semi-skimmed are fine - I use semi-skimmed) - Cardamom pods
These are optional, but they do bring a hint of floral flavours to your Hot Cross Buns. - Ground mixed spice and ground cinnamon
You can substitute with ground ginger, 1 tablespoon of chopped stem ginger, allspice, or nutmeg - any of these spices will work well. - Unsalted butter
Preferably unsalted, but salted or spreadable butter will be fine. - Fine salt
Salt is important as it brings out the flavours in your buns.
- Strong white bread flour
Try to use a good brand of flour, as they tend to be finer-milled and produce better hot cross buns. You can substitute half bread flour and half plain (all-purpose) flour, but using all bread flour gives your Hot Cross Buns a more bread-like consistency rather than a cakey one. - Caster (superfine) sugar
Or use golden caster sugar or granulated sugar. - Dried active yeast
- Orange
We use both the juice and zest, but you can omit them if you don't have an orange, as the mixed peel will carry the orange flavour. You can use fresh orange juice instead to soak the sultanas in. - Eggs
I use large eggs, but medium will be fine. - Icing (confectioners') sugar
Used to flavour the cross, bread and water alone give a chewy texture, but you can leave it out and just use the same amount of flour and water instead. - Apricot jam
used to glaze the Hot Cross Buns when they come out of the oven, but can be substituted with a mix of 1 tablespoon of caster sugar dissolved in 1 tablespoon of boiling water.
Instructions
See Recipe card for exact instructions.
Mix together sultanas, mixed peel and orange juice and heat in a microwave for a minute to rehydrate the fruit. Heat milk and cardamom pods. Set both aside to give them the orange juice time to soak into the sultanas and to allow the cardamoms to infuse into the milk.
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Stir together flour, salt, spices, sugar and dried yeast and then rub in cold butter.
Mix in beaten eggs and then the cooled but still warm milk. Then mix in the soaked fruit.
Knead for 10 minutes by hand or 2 minutes in a stand mixer until smooth and elastic in texture. Leave to prove for 1-2 hours until doubled in size.
Remove the risen dough and knead a few times again before splitting into 12 equal-sized balls.
Place in a lined roasting tin to prove again for 45 minutes and then pipe over a cross made from flour, icing sugar and water.
Bake for 17-20 minutes until lightly browned, and then use a pastry brush to coat in a layer of apricot jam. Leave to cool.
Storage
Like many homemade breads and scones, Hot Cross Buns are at their best as soon as they have baked and cooled.
They will keep in an airtight tin for 1-2 days.
You can freeze Hot Cross Buns; they should be consumed within 1-2 months.
Leftover Hot Cross Bun Suggestion
As homemade hot cross buns do not stay fresh for long, one way to use them up is by making a bread and butter pudding. They can be used as a substitute for bread slices in my Baileys Bread and Butter Pudding, for example.
Top tips for perfect Hot Cross Buns
Separate your sultanas
Dried fruits often stick together in clumps; go through them before soaking in orange juice to split them apart.
Be careful not to over-proof your dough
Proving the dough for too long results in over-developed gluten, and the hot cross buns will not be as soft and springy as you may like.
For your first proof, you will find that the dough is ready when it has doubled in size and springs back when you touch it. My kitchen is quite warm (around 23°C), and my dough had proved sufficiently in 1 hour and 45 minutes.
For the second proof, the buns are ready when they begin to touch each other. This took 45 minutes for mine.
Ensure your milk is warmed but not hot
Warmed milk wakes up (blooms) the yeast in your dough, thus ensuring it rises when proving. If not in the right temperature range of 40-50°C, this will affect the texture of your baked hot buns. My milk was hot enough to touch and registered 45°C.
Keep your dough cross thin
The paste for the cross is made from flour, sugar and water and can be quite tough and chewy if too thick. I prefer to use a homemade piping bag to pipe a cross onto my buns; this way, I can keep the cross thin and neat.
FAQ
Hot Cross Buns mark the end of Lent and commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus. They are decorated with a cross to represent the cross Jesus died on, and the spices are said to represent the spices used to embalm him.
Related
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📖 Recipe
The BEST Hot Cross Buns!
Here's what you'll need...
- Small saucepan
- Microwavable bowl
- Balloon whisk or wooden spoon
- 30 x 23 x 44 cm roasting tin
- Stand mixer with dough hook fitted optional
- Piping bag or home made piping bag https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnczzbPnzYo
Ingredients you'll need...
Hot Cross Buns
- 1 Orange zest and juice
- 200 g Sultanas
- 50 g Mixed peel
- 225 ml Milk whole or semi-skimmed
- 3 Cardamom pods
- 550 g Strong white bread flour
- 65 g Caster (superfine) sugar
- 7 g Sachet of dried fast-acting yeast
- 1 teaspoon Mixed spice
- 1 teaspoon Ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon Fine salt
- 50 g Unsalted butter cold and cubed
- 2 Large eggs at room temperature and lightly beaten
- 1 tbsp Oil
Decoration
- 25 g Flour
- 10 g Icing (confectioners) sugar (or an extra 10 g flour)
- 2 tablespoon Cold water
- 75 g Apricot jam
Here's what we do...
- Put your orange juice, sultanas and mixed peel into a microwavable bowl, cover and heat on full power for 1 minute. Mix together and set aside to cool for 20 minutes. Keep stirring intermittently to ensure the sultanas soak up the orange juice.
- Pour your milk into your small saucepan and add your whole cardamom pods. Heat over a medium heat until steam starts to rise from the milk and it is hot but not boiling. Remove from the heat and leave to infuse and cool for about 20 minutes.
- Add your flour, sugar, yeast, mixed spice, cinnamon and salt to your large bowl and mix them together so that there are no lumps. I find a balloon whisk works well for this.
- Dot over your cubed, cold butter and rub into the flour mixture with your fingertips until like breadcrumbs.
- Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and pour in your lightly beaten eggs. Mix the egg into the flour with a fork, until evenly distributed and clumpy.
- Your milk should be warm but not hot, ideally around 45°C, remove the cardamom pods and pour the milk into your flour mixture. Again stir it around using your fork until all mixed in and no dry flour remains.
- Next, tip in your cooled sultana mixture and use your fork to loosely mix through the dough.
- Either knead the dough by hand for 8-10 minutes or fit the dough hook to your stand mixer and knead on a low setting (setting 1-2 if using a KitchenAid) for 2 minutes. When ready the dough will be smooth and elastic in texture. Don't worry if quite sticky and wet, it is meant to be like that.
- Using a bowl big enough to allow the dough to double in size, oil to the outside of the bowl and then place the dough inside. Cover with a oiled piece of cling film (plastic wrap) and set aside somewhere reasonably warm to prove. My kitchen was 23℃ on the day I was making my Hot Cross Buns and it took 1 hour and 45 to prove until doubled in size. Be careful not to leave it too long, over proven dough will not produce great buns, 1-2 hours should be enough time.
- Line the base of your roasting tin with greaseproof paper and grease the sides with left over butter or oil.
- Tip your risen dough out onto a floured service and knead 3-4 times just to knock it back, then weigh the dough as a whole and divide by 12 to work out how much each hot cross bun needs to be. Mine worked out at 100 grams each. Create 12 equal balls of dough.
- Flatten each dough ball a little and press in any protruding sultanas or peel pieces. Then fold the sides under the base to form a ball with a smooth top. Place in the lined tin in rows of 3 with a small gap between each.
- Once all of the 12 dough balls are in the tin, cover with oiled cling film again and leave to rise for about 45-1 hour minutes, until they have grown in size and are just touching each other. Mine took 45 minutes to be ready.
- Whilst your buns are rising, heat your oven to 200°C/180°C Fan/355°F/Gas mark 4 and make the paste for your cross but mixing together your flour, icing sugar and water until smooth.
- Add a small round piping tip to a piping bag or make a piping bag from greaseproof paper (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnczzbPnzYo) and cut off the tip so you have a hole about 2mm wide.
- When your buns have risen again, fill your piping bag with your flour paste and then pipe a continuous line over the buns horizontally and then another vertically to form a cross on each.
- Bake for 17-20 minutes until lightly browned.
- Whilst the buns are baking heat your apricot jam briefly until loose but not runny and as soon as your buns are out of the oven paint it over them using your pastry brush.
- Lift your hot cross buns out of the tin and leave to cool.
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