Fill your home with the scent of Easter with these beautiful hot cross buns. Fluffy yeast buns studded with fruit and that tell-tale cross.
Looking for more hot cross bun recipes?
Ingredients
Method
Whisk yeast, sugar and milk in a small bowl or jug until yeast dissolves. Cover; stand in a warm place about 10 minutes or until mixture is frothy.
Sift flour and spices into a large bowl; rub in butter. Stir in yeast mixture, egg and sultanas; mix to a soft, sticky dough. Cover; stand in a warm place about 45 minutes or until dough has doubled in size.
Grease a deep 22cm (9-inch) square cake pan.
Knead dough on a floured surface about 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Divide dough into 16 pieces; knead into balls. Place balls into pan, cover; stand in a warm place about 10 minutes or until buns have risen two-thirds of the way up the pan.
Preheat oven to 220°C/425°F.
Make flour paste; place in a piping bag fitted with a small plain tube. Pipe crosses on buns.
Bake buns about 30 minutes or until they sound hollow when tapped. Turn buns, top-side up, onto a wire rack.
Meanwhile, make glaze; brush hot glaze on hot buns. Cool.
FLOUR PASTE
To make flour paste for crosses, combine flour and sugar in cup. Gradually blend in enough of the water to form a smooth firm paste.
GLAZE
To make glaze, stir ingredients in a small saucepan over heat, without boiling, until sugar and gelatine are dissolved.
Pamela’s tip
We’ve been using this same recipe for decades, it works and the results are delicious. Try varying the fruit to suit your own tastes, my current favourite is using glacé orange peel (not mixed peel). It’s imported and expensive, but worth every cent. You’ll find it in gourmet specialist food stores and some delis.
Pamela Clark is the former editorial director of the Women’s Weekly cookbooks. She was a pivotal member of the Test Kitchen for 50 years.
How to prepare hot cross buns
From Pamela Clark: “If you have a stand mixer with a dough hook, use it, the results are great. Kneading the dough properly and for the time specified is the secret to making great hot cross buns.”
“If you want each bun to be exactly the same, weigh the whole quantity of dough and divide the weight by 16; as you portion out the dough, weigh each piece to the same weight. They will look so good.”
Can you freeze hot cross buns?
From Pamela Clark: “Hot cross buns are at their best made on the day of serving; however, unglazed buns can be frozen for up to 3 months. Wrap them in foil, thaw them in a moderate oven for about 20 minutes.”
