Ben Dearnley
Try our easy, no-fail hot cross buns recipe for delicious results.
Nothing says “Easter” like biting into a tender hot cross bun, shining with glaze and jewelled with delicious dried fruit. While it might be easy to swing past the shops to buy some ready-made hot cross buns this Easter, we can’t encourage you enough to consider making our easy hot cross buns recipe at home instead. When the smell of baking bread and cinnamon fills your kitchen, and butter melts perfectly on a bun fresh from the oven, we can promise you won’t regret it!
In order to make the softest, most delicious hot cross buns, this recipe relies on slow proving with just a small amount of yeast. In this recipe we will prove the dough three times before baking. This gives the yeast plenty of time to work in the dough, creating a light and chewy texture that just can’t be beat.
We also used bread flour, which is higher in gluten than plain flour, so produces a better texture in the bun. Plain flour can be substituted if you can’t find bread flour.
Looking for more hot cross bun recipes?
The first proving comes immediately after combining the ingredients of the dough (full ingredients and method are at the bottom of this page). Covered with plastic wrap and stood in a warm place, the dough should roughly double in size within about an hour.
The perfect warm places to prove yeast dough are a windowsill in sunlight, or on an open oven door, with the oven set at a low temperature.
Once the dough is risen there is no need to “knock it down” by punching it. Instead, simply knead it for a few seconds and return it to the bowl to prove for another hour.
Once the dough has risen a second time, divide it evenly into 16 rolls.
For a bun with a softer crust, arrange the buns in rows of four inside a square 23cm cake pan. If you prefer a bit more of a crust, arrange the buns on a baking tray in four rows of four.
The final proving takes just 30 minutes, the perfect amount of time to whip up the flour paste to pipe the iconic crosses.
If you want to make fresh hot cross buns on Good Friday morning you can cover loosely for their last proving in the refrigerator overnight. Stand at room temperature for 45 minutes, pipe the crosses, then bake.
The buns only take 25 minutes to cook in the oven, so with 5 minutes left you can whip together the simple glaze.
You’ll know the buns are cooked if they sound hollow when lightly tapped. Once they’re cooked, turn them out onto a wire rack and brush with glaze.
Enjoy!
Ingredients
Method
Cooked buns suitable to freeze. Not suitable to microwave.
We used a 23cm (9-inch) square cake pan for the buns.
Bread flour is higher in gluten than plain flour, so produces a better-textured bun. Bread flour goes under various names: “strong”, “baker’s” or “bread”. Plain (all-purpose) flour
can be substituted.
The perfect warm place to prove yeast dough is a windowsill in sunlight, or on an open oven door, with the oven set at a low temperature.
For fresh buns on Good Friday morning, make and shape the dough according to the recipe, place on trays, then cover loosely for their last proving in the refrigerator overnight. Pipe crosses, then bake.
Note
