Hot Cross Bun Recipe
Looking for something for Lent or just a sweet bread to pass the day? Hot cross bun will cover both and keep the house safe!
The human race comes from an era where information wasn’t readily available at their fingertips at their will. We had to make decisions about life or death based on the best available date we had at the time.
Well, we still do this, that’s why recommendations about how we should live, eat, or do whatever, is changing too. The more data and methods are available for those who make a living studying specific stuff AKA scientists, the better recommendations we can get.
Unfortunately, it seems that our brain hasn’t caught up with the latest trends though. This is the problem when we have to use tools that has been made to serve in a different era.
Just imagine how we would struggle cooking in spider skillets on a modern cooktop, yet that is what our brain is forced to do on a daily basis with our neocortex immersed in virtual reality while our primitive brain is still clenching at the gate of Eden.
In order to learn new things, our brain needed to find patterns in the surrounding world. This behavior resulted in the accumulation of knowledge that was used to gain control over the environment.
Thanks for inquiry, we have figured out how to hunt, when to gather berries and how to feed human sacrifices into volcanoes to calm them down.
Yeah, it seems that there were a couple of dead ends during our evolution, but apparently the benefits over-weighed the disadvantages. Afterall, who cares if we spit over our left shoulder when a black cat runs over the street if our accumulated knowledge helps us survive a bear attack.
Superstitions are the side effects of our learning ability that simply roots in the lack of information on the subject or our plain ignorance on the matter. If in doubt, just sit down with someone who can’t distinguish Facebook from the Internet and ask about how their news feed is generated.
Luckily though, not all superstitions are that complicated as “Internet” algorithms. In fact, superstitions are created as simple explanations of unknown occurrences in order to gain back control in life filled with uncertainties.
Small wonder that so many superstition centers about marriage in an era when women’s whole life was made or broke over a good husband. Surely, it won’t eclipse the amount we had for ensuring a good harvest, hunt or whatever related to feed ourselves.
Some seized on the opportunity to fill the void, created by inexplicable events and soon churches were collecting tithe as an offering to God.
No one knows that God wasn’t happy with the offerings or the church hasn’t relayed the messages of plentiful harvest clearly enough to its boss, but some years still seemed to be better than others thus people started to look for additional insurances.
After decades of experimenting, it turned out that a hanged hot cross bun in the kitchen provided a protection from fires and ensured the baking of perfect breads for a year. People must have been vigilant of replacing the buns within one year or facing serious consequences.
It’s no surprise that after such a fabulous track record, hot cross bun were tried in many other areas of life as well. Buns baked on Good Friday were famous for their healing properties and were advised to be kept for curing various illnesses.
Luckily, the requirements were not so strict for ships as any hot cross bun could protect the ship from shipwreck during its voyage on sea. Nor are the requirements to bake one.
Even though the hot cross buns are made around the world for many centuries without references to the faith. Nowadays Christian tradition marks the end of the Lent with them, references to the Crucifixion of Jesus with the cross on top and uses the spices inside the bun that were used to embalm Jesus at his burial.
In the wild world though many ingredients are used including dairy that is forbidden during Lent but luckily hot cross buns aren’t restricted to Lent only nor we are to follow recipes to the letter.
Ingredients
Bun
- 5 cups / 600g Plain flour
- 1 tablespoon / 10g Fresh yeast
- 1⅓ cup / 300g milk
- 7 tablespoons / 100g Butter
- 2 medium / 100g Eggs
- 3 tablespoons / 60g Honey or sweetener of choice
Filling
- 1 tablespoon / 8g Cinnamon (powdered)
- ¾ cup / 100g Raisins or other dried fruit of choice
- 1 medium / 150g Apple (chopped optionally peeled)
- 1 medium / 10g Orange’s zest
- 1 medium / 50g Candid orange or other fruit peel
Cross decoration
- ⅓ cup / 50g Flour
- 5 tablespoons / 75g Water
Eggwash
- 1 medium / 50g Egg
- 1 teaspoon / 5g Vanilla extract
How to make Hot cross bun
Bun
- Put flour, yeast, milk, butter, egg and honey in a big mixing bowl.
- Knead ingredients until dough comes together.
- Put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl.
- Cover and leave it to rise in a 68°F – 81°F /20°C – 27°C place for 45 – 90 minutes or until doubled in size.
- Take dough out of the bowl on a lightly floured surface and flatten it a bit by hands, spread raisins, orange peel, orange zest, chopped apple and cinnamon on top evenly. Fold filling in the dough and put it back in the bowl and cover it.
- Leave to rise for another 45 minutes or until doubled in size.
- Divide the dough into 16 equal pieces.
- Roll them into smooth balls.
- Put balls into the baking tray leaving them some space to expand. Don’t put them too far away from each other though. Cover it and leave for another 20 minutes to rise.
- Preheat the oven to 430°F / 220°C. Put a deep tray with water at the bottom of the oven so buns will bake in steamy hot air.
- Mix the flour with the water to make the paste for the cross. Fill the paste into a piping bag to decorate the buns with the cross. Brush over the top of buns with egg wash before putting the tray in the preheated oven.
- Bake it for 20 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
Enjoy!
Hot Cross Bun Recipe
Ingredients
Bun
- 5 cups Plain flour
- 1 tablespoon Fresh yeast
- 1⅓ cup Milk
- 7 tablespoons Butter
- 2 medium Egg
- 3 tablespoons Honey or sweetener of choice
Filling
- 1 tablespoon Cinnamon powdered
- ¾ cup Raisins or other dried fruit of choice
- 1 medium Apple chopped optionally peeled
- 1 medium Orange's zest
- 1 medium Candid orange or other fruit's peel
Cross decoration
- ⅓ cup Flour
- 5 tablespoons Water
Eggwash
- 1 medium Egg
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
Instructions
- Put flour, yeast, milk, butter, egg and agave syrup in a big mixing bowl.
- Knead ingredients until dough comes together.
- Put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl.
- Cover and leave it to rise in a 68°F – 81°F /20°C – 27°C place for 45 - 90 minutes or until doubled in size.
- Take dough out of the bowl on a lightly floured surface and flatten it a bit by hands, spread raisins, orange peel, orange zest, chopped apple and cinnamon on top evenly. Fold filling in the dough and put it back in the bowl and cover it.
- Leave to rise for another 45 minutes or until doubled in size.
- Divide the dough into 16 equal pieces.
- Roll them into smooth balls.
- Put balls into the baking tray leaving them some space to expand. Don't put them too far away from each other though. Cover it and leave for another 20 minutes to rise.
- Preheat the oven to 430°F / 220°C. Put a deep tray with water at the bottom of the oven so buns will bake in steamy hot air.
- Mix the flour with the water to make the paste for the cross. Fill the paste into a piping bag to decorate the buns with the cross. Brush over the top of buns with egg wash before putting the tray in the preheated oven.
- Bake it for 20 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
Notes
Nutrition
Pin now, Enjoy later!
Tasty!
Yummy!
Great! Just what I was looking for. Have a question though,
Can I use plant based milk?
Hi Rosalee, Yes, you can use plant based milk without problem. Enjoy! 🙂
Hello, How much yeast? Your forgot to indicate it in recipe. I’m in the middle of making it and ….
That’s really embarrassing. The recipe has been updated now but 10g / 0.3 oz fresh yeast is sufficient. If fresh yeast isn’t available then a teaspoon of dry yeast should suffice.