For more delicious Easter recipes check out my easy carrot cake recipe with perfect cream cheese frosting, chocolate chip hot cross buns, chai and vanilla Easter cake, and swirled pastel cake (ribbon cake)! Back when I used to live in Australia and New Zealand, we’d get hot cross buns of all kinds of flavor popping up in bakeries everywhere, for months leading up to Easter. There used be a bakery below my clinic in Lismore, Austrlia, and they made some of the softest and incredibly delicious hot cross buns, and it made our whole building smell like sugar, spice and bread for days! Even better, they knew us, and would dole out free buns every now and then. They might as well have included that in the benefits package of my job. So growing up in that part of the world, soft, fluffy, tasty hot cross buns were a staple around Easter, and I never had a reason to make my own. But that supply ran out when I moved to the US, and I started making my own several years ago. These Classic Spiced Hot Cross Buns are so easy to make, soft, fluffy and also really quite addictive. The recipe is simple, but for best results, you do need a little bit of patience to let them proof well. It’ll be absolutely worth your while though! Now you can make Spiced Chocolate Chip Hot Cross Buns too! My recipe for hot cross buns includes a little twist to make them even softer and fluffier than traditional recipes. And that little secret is tangzhong.
What is Tangzhong?
Tangzhong is a Japanese cooking technique used in making milk bread. I use tangzhong to make these classic Sri Lankan raisin buns that are a tea time tradition in Sri Lanka. And of course this classic Japanese milk bread (Hokkaido milk bread), and this scallion and sesame milk bread. Tangzhong is a slurry of cooked water (or milk) with flour. A small amount of flour and liquid are cooked on a stove to make a runny paste. It doesn’t take more than 5 minutes. As the liquid heats up, the flour absorbs the hot liquid, creating expanded starch molecules and gluten structures. This is then mixed with the rest of the ingredients. It’s a really simple technique to elevate the flavor and texture of bread, with delightfully soft, fluffy results. I won’t get into the science of tangzhong in this post, but for all the science nerds (like me) out there, I’ll explain how tangzhong helps easily transform bread recipes in another post in the future.
How to make soft, fluffy spiced hot cross buns
The base for these classic hot cross buns is my homemade hot dog buns, another really popular recipe on my blog.
First, measure all the ingredients
It’s no secret that I prefer to weigh dry ingredients with a kitchen scale, rather than relying on measuring cups. A basic, inexpensive kitchen scale guarantees consistent, accurate results. For liquids, I mostly use volume (and occasionally weight) measurements. If you don’t have a kitchen scale at hand, you can use cup measurements, but make sure to use the spoon and level method to measure the dry ingredients.
Make the tangzhong and activate the yeast
This is the second step. I use dry active yeast, and I usually don’t have to activate it if I had stored it in the freezer, and it was relatively fresh (less than 2-3 months). But if it’s older than that, or wasn’t stored properly, then I would recommend activating the yeast BEFORE making the dough, in order to make sure your yeast is still active. The tangzhong paste is easy to make, and comes together quickly. You have to make sure that you whisk the paste constantly while cooking, to prevent any lumps from forming. It also should be at room temperature (or just slightly warm) when you add it to the dough. When yeast is activated and the tangzhong paste is ready, you can mix all the ingredients to make the dough, and knead it into a nice, smooth dough. PLEASE NOTE that this dough is sticky! When it’s being kneaded, the dough will stick to the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too dry, the buns will end up being tough. You may need to add a little extra liquid or flour depending on the protein content in the flour.
When to add the dried fruits to the dough
Some hot cross bun recipes call for raisins, mixed peel and other additions to all be added at the same time. But I prefer not to add those at the beginning.
Here’s why
The smoother the dough, the better the gluten structure. And the better the gluten structure, the more air it can trap, resulting in soft, fluffy buns and bread rolls. By adding raisins and other additions to the dough at the beginning, you interrupt the gluten formation while kneading the dough. End result? Not as fluffy and pillowy soft buns. So I prefer to add these later. There are two different time points at which you can add these, and you can choose either. You can do both! The first method will save some time, but the second method will let the gluten develop better. I’ve done both, and I’m happy with both results!
What additions and dried fruits can I use in these spiced hot cross buns?
I like to use A LOT of raisins, because I LOVE ’em, and I use a combination of golden and brown raisins, and you can use either one or both. I also love adding mixed peel. If you like nuts in your hot cross buns, then you can substitute some of the dried fruits for nuts too. Traditional additions in authentic hot cross buns include,
Currants or raisins Fresh fruits like chopped apple, pears, orange, tangerines or mandarins Nuts like almonds, walnuts, pecans Mixed peel
Another trick I use is to soak the raisins in warm orange juice. This plumps up the raisins, making them juicy and adds a lovely orange flavor to the buns too. You can substitute the orange juice with wine or bourbon, or apple juice or any other fruit juice you like. Just make sure it’s warm so it’s easier for the raisins to soak it up. So once the dough is proofed, and the dried fruits and other additions have been mixed in, the dough is ready to be turned into buns!
What’s the best way to portion out the dough into individual hot cross buns?
Weigh the dough! You can weigh the dough, and then divide it by 15. Then you’ll know how big each portion needs to be. For this spiced hot cross bun recipe, each portion should weigh about 74 – 77 g each. By measuring each portion this way, you ensure evenly sized, beautiful classic hot cross buns. It’s important to shape the buns well, so that they keep their shape as they are rising. I like to knead the portion first, and form it into a ball by pinching it at the bottom (so you get a smooth surface on top). Then I roll this dough ball on a floured surface with a cupped hand to shape it. Then they are proofed one last time, before being baked.
Hot cross bun crosses
A feature of classic hot cross buns is the crosses on top. Without those, they are simply spiced bread buns/rolls. Some prefer to pipe frosting crosses on top, but I personally prefer the crosses to be baked into the buns. These crosses are made with a mixture of flour, confectioner’s sugar and water. You add enough water to form a paste, and then this is piped on top of the buns. Once baked, they become crispy, and add a lovely crunch as well.
To glaze or not to glaze?
A beautiful, shiny glaze on top really makes your hot cross buns stand out. So the real question is what glaze to use? Two classic options are, Either one works well. The egg wash glaze simply adds a sheen, and no flavor. The apricot honey glaze on the other hand, adds a sweet, fruity flavor too. This apricot honey glaze does make the spiced hot cross buns hella sticky, but so freaking delicious at the same time too! 🙂 So there you have it. These spiced hot cross buns are addictive, I kid you not. And baking these sweet, spiced buns will make your whole house smell AMAZING! My favorite way to eat them is with a little salted butter, but we also like it toasted with some butter or jam. Hope you guys like ’em!
Other recipes you may like
Spiced Chocolate Chip Hot Cross Buns Pastel colored Chai Vanilla Cake with Caramel Nest (for Easter) Pastel swirled sheet cake with Easter decorations Cinnamon Rolls Brioche Cinnamon Rolls Pumpkin Scones with brown butter glaze
EQUIPMENT I USED FOR THIS RECIPE
Pastry brushes – to brush the hot cross buns with glaze. Silicone Spatulas – I love this set, and I have it in two sizes. They are perfect for different baking/cooking needs. Stand mixer – I love my KitchenAid mixer Measuring spoons Measuring Cups – I prefer to use cups to measure all liquid ingredients most of the time. I absolutely LOVE my colorful cup measuring set, and I also love my pyrex measuring jugs too. Sheet pan – You can use your sheet pan to keep the shaped hot cross buns, so that they will be ready for baking. Kitchen scale – Makes the process of weighing these ingredients much easier.
