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Gluten Free Hot Cross Buns

Gluten Free Hot Cross Buns - Quirky Cooking

Okay, so there was a bit of a bun fight on my Facebook page over which recipe I should post first – this one for gluten free hot cross buns, or my decadent dairy free double chocolate truffle ice cream… The buns won. (As buns tend to in bun fights. Ha ha!) But don’t worry, the ice cream won’t be far behind!

My kids were really happy with these, especially hot out of the oven. They were soft and held together nicely, not crumbly at all, thanks to the xanthum and guar gums. If you don’t have both, the most important one is the xanthum gum. If you don’t have any of that, see the *Variations* below the recipe. There’s also ideas there for varying the flours, milk and sweeteners; and suggestions for those who are egg free or yeast free.

This is just a basic recipe – if you don’t like peel and sultanas, change it to whatever additions you like… chocolate chips, currants, dried cranberries, dried blueberries… I think someone mentioned raspberries and chocolate too – mmmm… I actually love orange peel and dark chocolate chips. Also, for an even better flavour, grind up your own spices – use a whole nutmeg, a whole cinnamon stick, and a few cloves, and grind on speed 9 for a minute in a dry bowl, then add the orange zest and grind.

As with all gluten free breads, these are best made on the day you want to eat them, or they’ll get a bit too dry. Enjoy!

Note: You can find fine sea salt for this recipe in my online store here!

Gluten Free Hot Cross Buns
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Ingredients
  1. 150g brown rice, raw
  2. 100g basmati rice, raw
  3. zest of 1 orange, preferably organic (peel off with potato peeler)
  4. 200g coconut milk or cream *
  5. 200g water
  6. 1 Tblspn apple cider vinegar
  7. 50g macadamia oil (or butter)
  8. 2 eggs
  9. 100g sultanas
  10. 100g currants
Dry Ingredients
  1. 100g glutinous rice flour (or fine white rice flour)
  2. 160g tapioca flour (starch) *
  3. 2 tsp xanthum gum *
  4. 1 tsp guar gum
  5. 2 tsp instant yeast *
  6. 20g Rapadura or 10g xylitol *
  7. 1/2 tsp green stevia powder *
  8. 1 1/2 tsp salt
  9. 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  10. 1 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
  11. 1/2 tsp ground cloves
Instructions
  1. Make sure your Thermomix bowl is nice and dry, and grind brown rice and basmati rice on speed 9 for 1 1/2 minutes.
  2. Add orange zest and grind on speed 9 for 10 seconds or so.
  3. Add remaining dry ingredients and mix on speed 6 for 10 seconds, until combined.
  4. Set aside dry mixture in a bowl. Place milk, water, vinegar and oil into Thermomix bowl and cook at 37 degrees for 2 minutes, speed 2, or until liquids reach 37 degrees.
  5. Add eggs and whisk for a few seconds on speed 5 until combined.
  6. Add dry ingredients and sultanas and/or currants (or other additions) into the liquids in the bowl and mix on reverse speed 3 until well combined.
  7. Spoon heaped, rounded tablespoons of dough into muffin cups, or drop them close together in rows in a lined baking dish, and leave to rise in a warm spot for 30 minutes.You can wet your hands and gently smooth the buns so they look round if you like.
  8. Bake in 200 degree C oven for about 30 minutes, or until golden on top and bottom. A knife inserted should come out clean.
Quirky Cooking https://quirkycooking.com.au/
[Note: you can make the crosses just as you would on regular hot cross buns – just mix together a little rice flour and water to make a thick paste, and pipe onto buns with a piping bag. I didn’t as I was running out of time!]

Gluten Free Hot Cross Buns - Quirky Cooking
 
 
Gluten Free Hot Cross Buns - Quirky Cooking
 
Gluten Free Hot Cross Buns - Quirky Cooking
Icing crosses: You can pipe on crosses with white icing if you like, which is what I did. Well, kind of. In my rush I forgot to use egg whites and used water instead, and the icing melted all over the still warm buns! Oh well, you get the idea. Here’s the recipe for the icing – I just use a ziploc bag for a piping bag:
 
Royal icing made with xylitol
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Ingredients
  1. 100g xylitol
  2. 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
  3. 2 tblspns cornflour
  4. 1 egg white
Instructions
  1. Grind xylitol, cream of tartar and cornflour on speed 9, scraping down now and then, until very fine.
  2. Insert butterfly and add egg white, mixing on speed 4 for about 4 or 5 minutes, until thick
  3. Sit a zip-loc sandwich bag in a glass and drape the edges over the sides. Pour the icing into the bag, squeeze the air out, and seal. Snip a TINY hole in one corner of the bag and pipe the crosses onto the cooled buns!
Quirky Cooking https://quirkycooking.com.au/

* Variations:

–  If you don’t have any xanthum gum, try grinding up 2 tablespoons of chia seeds or linseeds, cover with a little water and leave for a few minutes until it forms a gel, then pop that in instead.

– If you can’t have eggs, you could try egg replacer, and add some chia seed gel too – but I haven’t tested that, so not sure how well it would go.

– If you can’t have yeast, try making these with 2 teaspoons of baking powder instead of the yeast, plus another egg. Again, I haven’t tested it on this recipe yet (although I have with similar gf breads and it worked); so if you try it, let me know how it goes!

– Instead of tapioca flour/starch, you can use arrowroot or cornflour starches. Potato starch may not work so well, as it’s quite moist. If you don’t have glutinous rice flour or fine white rice flour, you could grind your own, but do it separately to the other rice as you should only grind 250g at a time so you don’t overload the blades. And you’ll need to grind it for at least a minute and a half to get it really fine. Add some of the tapioca flour in with it and then grind, as that will help it to grind finer.

– Instead of Rapadura or xylitol, and stevia, you can use whatever sweetener you prefer. I have made these with all stevia – just use a whole teaspoon. Or all Rapadura – use 50g. All xylitol I’d use about 30g. Of course you can use 50g raw sugar if that’s all you have.

– Instead of coconut milk or cream, you can use any milk you prefer.

5 thoughts on “Gluten Free Hot Cross Buns

  1. Nicole says:

    Jo .. You are amazing!! .. I just made these using the yeast substitute with baking powder & extra egg!! Worked perfectly .. They are yum .. They are perfect!! Thank you for pioneering amazing recipes using alternatives & substitutes

  2. Amanda says:

    Hi Jo, when baking these, do you recommend doing the same trick with the pizza stone and hot water in the baking tray as you do for your bread dough recipes? Thanks 🙂

    • QuirkyJo says:

      I wouldn’t cook them quite as hot because they are sweet, and sugar burns easily. Maybe just heat oven to 200 then turn down, but definitely use the pizza stone to help with rising. 🙂

  3. Kate says:

    These look amazing and I can’t wait to make these for the kids! I’m trying really hard to change our autistic sons diet but it is so hard as he is so the same and beige foods all the time!

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