Hot Cross Buns
If there was a competition of all the buns, iced, spiced, you name it, hot cross buns would always always get my vote, they're just so soft and subtly spiced. No wonder I ate so many all at once and thank god for my freezer. My waistline is grateful.This recipe is largely equipment-free and when I say equipment, I mean a food mixer. This is the recipe for you if you're looking for a workout! However, if you've already done your work out and your arms are tired, I recommend you check out the guidance over at Recipe Tin Eats for timings.
Servings: 12
Ingredients
- 200 ml strong Earl grey tea made with 2 tea bags
- 210 g sultanas
- 640 g flour with added gluten strong-plain flour or T55
- 9 g instant yeast
- 100 g sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- 1½ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp mixed spice or similar (a blend that includes cloves, coriander, ginger, as well as cinnamon and nutmeg)
- 1 orange zested
- 50 g melted butter
- 1 egg
- 375 ml warm milk cool enough to put your finger in
For the crosses
- 75 g flour any type of flour
- 70 ml water
For the glaze
- 2 tbsp apricot jam
- 2 tbsp water
Instructions
- First, soak the fruit. Pour your well-brewed tea into a large bowl and add the sultanas. Set aside to soak for half an hour and gather together the rest of your ingredients.
- Put the flour, yeast, sugar, spices and salt in a mixing bowl and stir briefly to combine. Mix together the milk, melted butter, egg and orange zest then pour into the flour. Add the soaked sultanas. Stir with a wooden spoon to mix together all the ingredients until you have a shaggy wet dough. Tip it out onto a very lightly floured work surface.
- Knead for around 10 minutes until the dough is soft and stretchy. You will need more flour on the surface and your hands, but be stingy with it! Once it is smooth, plop it into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a clean tea towel and leave to proof in a warm place until doubled in size. Depending how warm it is, this can take 30 minutes or 2 hours!
- Once it's all puffed up and beautiful, tip it back out of the bowl and give it a little knead to squash out the air. Roll it into a long sausage, then cut in half then half again. Cut each quarter into three. Divvy up the dough so that each portion is roughly the same size, I even weighed mine so you could do that if you can be bothered. Flatten each piece then pinch the edges together. Roll on the work surface to smooth its little pinched bottom.
- Once all your buns are nicely round, lightly grease a 31cm x 23cm baking dish (or near enough) and line the buns up 4 by 3. Leave to proof again for another 30 minutes or so until they've risen, but not quite doubled in size.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F.
- Make the cross mixture by combining the flour and water in a bowl and stirring until smooth. Don't add more liquid as it will be very difficult to use and your crosses will splodge everywhere. Fill a piping bag or a sandwich bag and snip off the end at around 1cm in width.
- Once the buns have risen, pipe a line all along each column and then across each row. The flour mixture goes further than you expect so don't be too cautious as it will come out in blobs.
- Now they're ready to go in the oven! Bake for 25-30 minutes. You may need to rotate the dish to ensure they are all evenly golden on top.
- Meanwhile make the glaze by warming the apricot jam and water in a pan and mixing together until smooth. Remove the hot cross buns from the oven and brush on the jammy glaze while they're still warm. Leave to cool in the tray or just rip one off immediately and devour it.