Hot Cross Buns!
This was my second attempt at hot cross buns this week. The first recipe that I followed was from Nigella’s Feast and it did not turn out well. Maybe it was something I did or didn’t do but I would love to hear if anyone has had succes with that recipe.
This time, I modified a Delia Smith recipe – the first of her recipes that I’ve tried – and it was a winner! I left the dough to prove overnight instead of 1.5 hours, but that’s just because it suited our day, then moved from the fridge to our bench yesterday morning before we went to the Good Friday service. Mum, dad, W & W came over after the service to share in a bowl of mum’s duck porridge – yummo! In the meatime, I punched the dough down, divided it into 12 round portions and left it to prove again before piping the cross on and baking.
The result – fresh, spicy, fruity and full of flavour, quite unlike the first lot I made which did not rise very much and was therefore quite dense as well as flavourless. I did not have any mixed spice in the pantry and so substituted with ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. I don’t remember the exact amounts of each spice that I sprinkled on, but it was definitely more generous than the 1 heaped tablespoon of mixed spice that Delia recommends.
In fact, we did a little taste-testing of this against hot cross buns, both fruit and choc chip, from Browns and choc chip from Bakers Delight and I’m happy to report that both A. & I felt that mine trumped the commercially made ones 
The homemade ones had a better flavour and were slightly denser, giving them nicer mouth feel.
Hot Cross Buns
50g caster sugar + 1 tsp, 1 tbs dried yeast, 450g strong flour, 1 tsp salt, a few tsp of ground cinnamon/nutmeg/ginger/clove, 125g mixed dried fruit, 40ml warm milk, 1 egg, 50g melted butter. For cross: 2 tbs flour + boiling water to create paste for piping. For glaze: 2 tbs sugar, 2 tbs boiling water.
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Stir 1 tsp caster sugar into 150ml tepid water and sprinkle in dried yeast. Leave until frothy.
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Sift flour, salt, spices together and add tge remaining 50g sugar and dried fruits. Make a well in the centre and pour in the yeast mixture, 40ml tepid milk, beaten egg and melted butter. Mix into a dough, transfer to a clean surface and knead until smooth & elastic (around 6 min).
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Place back into bowl nd cover with cling film. Leave in a warm place until it rises to double its original volume (place in fridge if leaving overnight). Turn it out & knead it back down to its original size.
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Divide dough into 12 portions and arrange on baking sheet. Slash a cross across each one with a sharp knife. Cover with cling film and leave to rise for about 25 min.
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Mix the flour and water into a paste suitable for piping and pipe a cross on each portion of dough. Bake at 220C for 15 min, watching carefully that they don’t burn.
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Brush buns with the glaze as soon as they come out of the oven.
April 15th, 2006 at 7:30 pm
I was looking at the Nigella recipe this morning but couldn’t be bothered in the end.
Maybe I could make out of season (gasp) hot cross buns later and see how I go with her recipe!
April 16th, 2006 at 12:42 am
Wow Cin, these look great! A lot of people seem to be attempting the Nigella recipe… it will be interesting to see how many of them rise to the occasion!
April 16th, 2006 at 4:43 pm
Belinda: Let me know how you go.
Helen: My first time and will definitely try to do this every year! Why haven’t I baked Hot Cross Buns before???
April 17th, 2006 at 11:30 am
Sounds delicous, think next Easter will try & make my own, this year was too busy cooking heaps of other stuff
April 19th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
Hi Cin – I did the Nigella recipe and it worked a treat, rose to the occasion (arf arf Helen!) and they tasted sublime. I’ll post it tomorrow and throw a link to your post too. I fiddled with the recipe because I always do, so maybe there’ll be a hint as to what happened. Yours look fabo anyway.
April 20th, 2006 at 11:40 am
i tried the nigella recipe too and failed miserably. although i think it had more to do with a few changes i made… more orange zest, no sultanas – just currants and i tried to make mini ones … so they didnt rise properly. i did manage to make some from a sweet dough recipe and they turned out fine… but i only made half a dozen and they were eaten straight out of the oven by my guests. ill have to try this version again…
April 2nd, 2007 at 11:31 am
I got a disappointing result from the Nigella recipe too. i followed it exactly, but it wasn’t til they were in the oven that i realised there was no sugar in the dough. Doesn’t yeast need at least a bit of sugar to develop properly? That explains why they didn’t rise much, and the blandness in taste too. i’ll give your recipe a go instead!
March 15th, 2008 at 5:12 am
It’s obvious why Nigella’s hot cross buns failed! I knew there was something wrong as I was reading the recipe and there was no salt. My intuition told me that I should use salt as all yeasted doughs have salt in them, but I didn’t listen my intuition and failed. The dough raised nicely, but it didn’t taset of anything. I made them again this time with salt, cca 3/4 – 1 tsp salt and they were fabulous!! Good Luck and don’t forget the salt!
March 23rd, 2008 at 3:51 am
I just made some to Nigella’s recipe and they failed to rise too. I cooked them anyway and they didnt rise in the oven either. My mum tried one and said “eww, did you forget the sugar?…”
March 12th, 2009 at 3:12 am
i did the nigella recipe and they were the best hot cross buns ever!!!
March 23rd, 2009 at 3:17 pm
hmmm yeah mine didn’t work that well either – more like flat bread… love hot cross buns tho so will give it another go.. not quite too good with complex recipes but meridian recipe feed is awesome for simple cooking! try out the caramelised pears!!! soo easy and DELICIOUS!