Hot Cross Buns
Greek Easter Bread
April 11, 2009
Food Photos
May 2, 2009
I could eat hot cross buns all year round – I love them hot out of the oven… They never last long at our house! I make spelt hot cross buns, and use rice-almond milk and Rapadura, and they turn out just as good if not better than the usual version. This recipe is also delicious as fruit bread – just cook the dough in a loaf tin instead of making rolls. (Good for when you’re in a hurry!) Sometimes we make chocolate chip hot cross buns instead of the usual ones – see variation below. Enjoy, and Happy Easter! 🙂
[Note: Grind up your grain first if you want to use some wholemeal flour in your buns.]
1. Whizz on speed 9 in Thermomix until finely ground:
– zest of 1 orange, no white bits (or you can use glazed peel)
– 60g Rapadura
2. Add remaining ingredients and mix on speed 6 for 6 seconds:
– 250ml warm rice/almond milk
– 70g soft butter or ghee or oil (grapeseed, light olive, macadamia)
– 550g spelt flour (I use 100g w/meal, 450g white)
– 1 tsp salt
– 2 heaped tsp instant yeast
– 1 1/2 tsp each ground cinnamon & nutmeg
– 1/2 tsp ground cloves
3. Knead on interval speed for 2 mins, adding dried fruit towards the end:
– 100g sultanas
– 70g currants or dried cranberries
(mix a little longer if needed to mix in fruit)
4. Wrap dough in silicon bread mat and place in cold oven with a tray of boiling water underneath. Leave to rise for 20 minutes.
5. Punch down and shape into small rolls. Place close together on lined baking tray, cover, and leave to rise for 10-15 mins.
6. Pipe with crosses made from:
– 80g white spelt flour
– 1 tsp light olive oil
– pinch salt
– 100g water
7. Place rolls in cold oven, again with a pan of boiling water underneath. Turn oven on to 220 degrees (C) and bake for 15-20 mins or until golden. Brush with hot syrup while still warm.
8. Syrup: heat in Thermomix on 100 degrees for 2 minutes, speed 2:
– 2 Tbspns Rapadura
– 2 Tbspns water
Variation: Instead of dried fruit, add dark chocolate chips – or a mixture of choc chips and sultanas – yum!
31 Comments
These look good Jo. I might try this recipe but with kamut flour, which i recently discovered… do you ever use kamut flour in cooking?
Hi Jo – I am just making these. Sadly I dont have a silicone mat, but that will be fine.
I am wondering why do you put them in a cold oven?
thanks Jen
Hi Jo, Just confirming that we need 550g of spelt flours in total or just 450g …? As the spelt flour options listed in brackets in the recipe add up to 450g not 550g?
Hi Jo,
Thought I commented before, but its not here LOL.
Anyway, have you tried this with GF Flours? I’m after a great GF recipe to help with my craving of Hot Cross Buns!
Hi Marie, you’ll actually need a different recipe for gf hot cross buns. What I have done in the past is use a gf bread mix, and add spices, sultanas and rapadura, then baked in muffin tins. You can still do the cross on top too. 🙂
Oh ok, cool thank you! I’ll do some playing 😉
Oh Jo, you are Mai my any belly fat. Lol. I just polished off 3 buns with lots of butter. Thanks for this fantastic recipe!
Oops what I meant was making my baby belly fat. Obviously a moment of baby brain. Rebekah Barlow.
Ha ha, Bek! So glad you liked them 😀 (Now you’ve made me hungry, but too late to start baking now…)
Yummy!
Mine def not as pretty as yours, but they are delish! My son has been asking for hcb for ages, refuse to buy the ones at the shops, I finally made them and think I made his day 🙂 Thanks Jo.
Hi Jo,
I made these over the weekend and they are delicious, but I found them to be really heavy and dense.
Is that just the cost of using spelt flour, or could it have been in my methods?
Thanks
Hi, it depends if you’re using a light spelt flour or a heavier stoneground flour. For light, fluffy buns, you need the light, sifted, white spelt flour. Also, make sure they rise well twice, in a warm place – once as a ball of dough, and also once you’ve made them into buns. They should rise double before cooking. Another thing to check is that you have yeast that isn’t old – make sure you keep your yeast in the fridge.
Hope that helps, Jo.
Thanks Jo,
It does help a lot. I had to look up details of the flour I’m using and it is stoneground.
I’ll try sifting it before I make my next batch and see how I go. Maybe I can give it a whazz in the TM as well.
Thanks, Sally
I do not have a silicone bread mat any ideas what I can use instead? Thanks Jo.
Thanks Jo for such a great recipe. It’s so good I have had to make a batch everyday this week!
I love you site.
Janelle
Recipe looks great – and I followed it strictly but unfortunately they did not cook on the bottom. Looked perfect on the top however still doughy on the bottom. Oven only a few months old so not the problem.
Have covered with foil and popped back in to cook longer … crossing my fingers!
Wondering now if the large tray of water I had in the oven should have been a much smaller one. Maybe this caused the doughy bottom!
Hi Jo LOVE LOVE LOVE your blog & Facebook page! Thank you sooooo much for all the yummiest you share so happily! Could you please tell me how does Spelt Bread Mix compare to Spelt flour??? Is it interchangeable at all do you know? I used it instead of Spelt flour & looks like I have hot cross lead weights! Will try again in next few days with the right flour! Cheers…. Happy Easter!
Can i just substitute regular wheat for the spelt in this recipe? So looking forward to trying these!
Should you put them back in oven to rise again when they are buns or just leave on tray and cover? Mine in the oven currently but dough was incredibly dry (dried fruit not even properly sticking in) so I am questioning total amount of flour (is it 450 or 550 in total)? Was so looking forward to these tomorrow but I have a feeling they’re going to be an unmitigated disaster!
Hi. These tasted amazing. But mine didn’t rise enough on reflection on the first rise. I left it for about 2.5 hours too.
Thinking is the yeast the issue here? Thoughts on how to make sure they rise when I try them again.
Made with a mixer and dough hook, hopefully a thermomix isnt’t too far away!! Mine didn’t rise too much on first rise, I certainly couldn’t punch it down! But they did rise when rolled into buns, and they came out perfectly. I’ve made them twice now:-)
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People keep saying that they don’t have silicone baking mats but it will be ok….I’m a total baking rookie, and I don’t have a silicone baking mat – can someone lay out for me what I should do instead, please? Much obliged!
Just made these and they are amazing ! Thanks for sharing!!
This recipe excites me, the dough tastes great! However. I substituted flours and used 150g fresh ground wheat grains and 400g brown rice flour and my dough is all crumbly. Have tried adding more almond milk/oil but still not holding together. Any suggestions?
Hi Sally, wheat is dryer than spelt, so will need more water when substituting. Brown rice isn’t a great sub for spelt, as it will definitely be too dry! Sorry!!
I just got around to making these. While they tasted great, they were still doughy & didn’t rise much/at all 😞
Hi Kate, sounds like they could have used more baking time. It also depends if you’re using a light spelt flour or a heavier stoneground flour. For light, fluffy buns, you need the light, sifted, white spelt flour. Also, make sure they rise well twice, in a warm place – once as a ball of dough, and also once you’ve made them into buns. They should rise double before cooking. Another thing to check is that you have yeast that isn’t old – make sure you keep your yeast in the fridge. Hope that helps! 🙂 xx
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