Hot cross buns
The buns traditionally eaten in England on Good Friday, whose cross is not icing but a paste of flour and water piped on before baking. Two things decide the result: the fruit must be soaked, because dry fruit draws water out of the dough and the buns bake dense, and it goes in only after the gluten has developed, so it does not hamper the kneading or get crushed into the dough.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Soaking the fruit 30 min
- Dough 25 min
- Rising 90 min
- Shaping 15 min
- Proving 50 min
- Baking 22 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneSoak the fruit in hot tea
Cover the raisins and peel with hot, strong tea for 30 minutes and drain. Dry fruit pulls water out of the dough during proving and the buns bake dense. Tea rather than water also adds a light tannic bitterness that balances the sweetness.
Ingredients: 200 g raisins · 80 g candied peel · 200 ml black tea · 1 pcs orange
Plump and dark — drained before it goes in.Make the spiced dough
Mix the flour with the yeast, sugar, spices and orange zest, add the lukewarm milk and egg, wait 10 minutes, add the salt and knead for 8 minutes. Then work in the soft butter a piece at a time and knead 6 minutes more.
Ingredients: 500 g strong bread flour · 250 ml milk · 7 g dried yeast · 70 g sugar · 8 g salt · 60 g butter · 1 pcs egg · 2 tsp cinnamon · 2 tsp mixed spice · ½ tsp nutmeg
Add the fruit at the very end
Mix in the drained fruit for one minute on the lowest speed (or by hand, folding the dough). Added earlier, it would hamper the gluten development and get crushed, turning the dough grey.
Ingredients: 200 g raisins · 80 g candied peel · 200 ml black tea · 1 pcs orange
Rise for 90 minutes
Leave in an oiled bowl until doubled. A dough this high in sugar and fruit rises more slowly than a plain one — if it has not doubled after an hour and a half, give it another thirty minutes.
Ingredients: 500 g strong bread flour · 250 ml milk · 7 g dried yeast · 70 g sugar · 8 g salt · 60 g butter · 1 pcs egg · 2 tsp cinnamon · 2 tsp mixed spice · ½ tsp nutmeg
Shape and pack them into a tin
Divide into 12 balls, round each by stretching the surface taut and set them 2 cm apart in a lined tin of about 23 × 33 cm. Cover and leave for 50 minutes, until clearly risen and touching; meanwhile heat the oven to 190°C. The sides that touch stay soft, which is why hot cross buns are pulled apart rather than cut.
Ingredients: 500 g strong bread flour · 250 ml milk · 7 g dried yeast · 70 g sugar · 8 g salt · 60 g butter · 1 pcs egg · 2 tsp cinnamon · 2 tsp mixed spice · ½ tsp nutmeg
Pipe the crosses in flour paste
Whisk the flour with the water into a smooth, thick paste and pipe crosses over the proved buns, in one continuous line across each row. The paste has no flavour — it is a mark, not an ingredient, which is why it is flour and water alone.
Ingredients: 70 g plain flour · 80 ml water · 60 g apricot jam
One continuous line across the row, not bun by bun.Bake 22 minutes at 190°C
Bake 20–22 minutes at 190°C, until deep golden with the crosses still white. The tops darken fast because of the sugar — cover with foil if they are already brown after fifteen minutes.
Ingredients: 500 g strong bread flour · 250 ml milk · 7 g dried yeast · 70 g sugar · 8 g salt · 60 g butter · 1 pcs egg · 2 tsp cinnamon · 2 tsp mixed spice · ½ tsp nutmeg
Glaze hot buns with hot glaze
Warm the apricot jam with a spoonful of water, push it through a sieve and brush the hot buns with the hot glaze. The water evaporates within seconds and leaves a lacquered shine. On cold buns the glaze stays tacky for a long time.
Ingredients: 70 g plain flour · 80 ml water · 60 g apricot jam
Hot glaze onto hot buns — the shine stays.
Before you start
How they are eaten
The next day they are split and toasted in a pan or toaster, with butter. In Britain that is a common way with buns from the day before. Toasting caramelises the sugar in the glaze.
Changing the fruit
Raisins, sultanas, cranberries, dried cherries or chopped dried apricots. Keep to 280 g per 500 g of flour — beyond that the dough cannot hold its structure and the fruit falls out during shaping.
An icing cross is not the same
Icing goes tacky and melts in the oven. A flour and water paste bakes along with the bun, stays matt and white, and gives the characteristic contrast against the golden surface.
