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Plate of Easter Buns

Hot Cross Buns

Hot Cross Buns, an Easter tradition, are made with a yeasted enriched dough that is fragrant with warm spices and studded with dried fruit. The glazed tops of the billowy soft buns are marked with the characteristic white cross.
Course Bread
Cuisine Canadian
Keyword buns, Hot Cross Buns, rolls
Servings 12
My Island Bistro Kitchen Barbara99

Ingredients

  • 1 cup raisins (golden or sultana)
  • ¾ cup hot orange juice or hot water
  • ½ cup warm milk (115°F)
  • 1 tsp granulated sugar
  • tsp active dry yeast
  • ¾ cup scalded milk (no less than 2%M.F.)
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 3 tbsp brown sugar, packed
  • ¾ tsp salt
  • 6 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 2 tsp finely grated orange zest
  • 2 large eggs, room temperature
  • cups all-purpose flour (plus an additional 1/3 cup, if needed)
  • ¾ tsp cinnamon
  • ¼ tsp cardamom
  • 1/8 tsp allspice
  • 1/8 tsp nutmeg
  • Pinch cloves
  • Spray cooking oil
  • Vegetable oil for greasing dough and bowl
  • Shortening for greasing baking pan

Glaze:

  • 2 tbsp apricot or orange jam (minus any large chunks of fruit)
  • (scant) 1 tbsp water

Icing Crosses:

  • ¾ cup sifted icing sugar (aka powdered sugar or confectioner’s sugar)
  • Apx. 2½ - 3 tsp milk
  • ½ tsp pure vanilla extract or ¼ tsp pure almond extract

Instructions

  1. Assemble and measure out all ingredients before beginning. In medium-sized bowl, sieve or whisk 3½ cups of flour with the spices. Set aside.
  2. In small-sized saucepan, over medium-high heat, bring ¾ cup milk to the scalding point (180°F), stirring frequently to prevent milk from scorching. Do not boil the milk. Remove from heat and whisk the sugars and salt into the milk. Let mixture cool to 110°F then whisk in the vegetable oil and orange zest.
  3. Boil orange juice or water and pour over raisins in small bowl to hydrate and plump them. Let sit for about 15 minutes, stirring a couple of times, then drain well in colander or mesh strainer. Discard orange juice/water.
  4. While the milk mixture is cooling, place ½ cup warm milk (115°F) in 2-cup measuring cup or bowl. Stir 1 tsp sugar into the warm milk until sugar is dissolved. Sprinkle yeast over the water and quickly, but gently, stir in the yeast. Let yeast stand, undisturbed with no stirring, for about 10-12 minutes, or until yeast is foamy and bubbly and doubled in volume.
  5. In bowl of stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat the eggs on medium speed just until frothy. With mixer speed set to lowest speed, add the milk mixture and mix just until combined with the eggs. Stir down yeast and add to ingredients in bowl. Beat on low speed (i.e., the “2” setting on KitchenAid Classic mixer) for apx. 20 seconds. With mixer on lowest speed, gradually add 1 cup of flour. Increase speed to medium (i.e., the “6” setting on KitchenAid Classic mixer) and beat 1 minute. Scrape down sides of bowl with rubber or silicone spatula.
  6. Switch mixer attachment to dough hook and gradually add remaining flour, about ¾ cup of flour at a time. With each flour addition, beat on lowest speed to blend ingredients then increase speed to medium and beat for 30-45 seconds. Scrape the bowl and dough hook with spatula as necessary to ensure all ingredients are incorporated before each addition of flour. After all the flour has been added, beat on low speed (i.e., the “2” setting on KitchenAid Classic mixer) for approximately 7-8 minutes, until dough is smooth and elastic. Dough will still be sticky/tacky.
  7. Blot drained raisins with paper towel to remove excess moisture.
  8. Using some of the additional 1/3 cup of flour called for in the recipe, lightly flour work surface. Remove bowl from mixer and transfer dough to prepared work surface. Begin kneading the dough by hand, adding in the raisins, a few with each turn and knead of the dough. This kneading should only take approximately a couple of minutes, or until raisins are fully incorporated and dough is smooth, elastic, and pliable but still a bit tacky to the work surface. Add small amounts of remaining flour only if necessary and if dough is sticking to fingers or peeling off and staying on the work surface. When fully kneaded, dough should still feel tacky but will not stick to hands or peel on to surface and stay. This is intended to be a soft dough so be careful about adding too much additional flour.
  9. Grease a bowl large enough to allow the dough to rise up to double in size (note that dough may not exactly double in volume). Grease all sides of dough with vegetable oil to prevent it from drying out and transfer dough to prepared bowl. Cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap that has been sprayed with cooking oil. Cover bowl completely with a tea towel and a lightweight blanket and place in warm, draft-free location to rise, about 1½ - 1¾ hours.
  10. Grease 9”x13” baking pan with shortening.
  11. Lightly dust work surface with flour. Punch down dough in center with fist to deflate it and turn dough out onto the work surface. Knead dough 2-3 times. Using a sharp knife, divide dough into 12 equal portions. To achieve size consistency of the buns, it is recommended to weigh the dough and divide that weight by 12 to determine how much each of the 12 portions of dough should weigh.

  12. To shape the buns, gather the edges of each piece of dough together into the center as if forming a small sack. Pinch ends together to seal and tuck into bun. Set bun, pinched/seam side down on lightly floured work surface. Cup hand over dough to form a “cage” and, using the outside edge of the hand as a guide, gently roll dough around in a swirling/circular motion on the work surface to form a smooth rounded shape. Place bun in prepared baking pan. Continue forming buns in this manner with remaining dough, spacing the buns approximately ½“ apart in the pan.
  13. Cover buns with tea towel and place in warm, draft-free location to rise until puffy (they may not quite double in size), about 1¼ - 1½ hours.
  14. About 20 minutes before buns are ready to be baked, position oven rack in center of oven and preheat oven to 375°F. Transfer buns to oven and bake for approximately 22 - 27 minutes, or until buns are lightly browned on the top and hollow sounding when lightly tapped with fingers. Rotate the baking pan once partway through the baking.

  15. About 5 minutes or so before buns are due to come out of the oven, prepare glaze as follows.
  16. Glaze: Heat the jam (minus any large fruit chunks) and water in the microwave or in small pan on the stovetop until jam is melted. Stir. Strain to remove any remaining pieces of fruit. Using a pastry brush, apply the glaze evenly to the buns as soon as they come out of the oven.

  17. Cool buns in pan for an hour then prepare icing for the crosses as follows.
  18. Icing Crosses: Mix icing sugar, 2½ tsp milk, and the vanilla or almond extract together until smooth. Add additional milk only if needed to achieve a thick piping consistency icing but not really runny. Add any additional milk needed by very small amounts at a time. If icing becomes too runny, add a bit more icing sugar to achieve piping consistency which will allow the icing to remain in place when piped onto the buns.

  19. Transfer icing to a piping bag fitted with a Wilton No. 9 piping tip or, alternatively, spoon into a small plastic bag, snip off one corner of bag, and proceed with piping a thick cross shape on buns. It is recommended to pipe one long string of icing along and across the buns versus piping a cross individually on each bun.
  20. Let Hot Cross Buns rest for approximately 30 minutes to allow the icing to set before serving.

Recipe Notes

Yield: Apx. 1 dozen Hot Cross Buns

 

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