Easter approaching and at the Suburban Bee Company we love a hot cross bun. Of course, it’s us, so our buns feature a luxurious and oozy honey glazed top. Recipe below for you to try out. The paste crosses look good but are optional and you can even try the recipe as a fruit loaf instead of buns. Simply pop the dough into suitably sized loaf tins.

We think the glaze is a must 🙂 so go on … spoil yourself

Ferment

• 20g Sugar
• 5g Instant Yeast
• 300ml Milk
• 150g Wholemeal Flour

Bun Dough

• Ferment (from above)
• 200g Strong White Bread Flour
• 120g Wholemeal Flour
• 50g Butter
• 10g Mixed Spice
• 1 Egg
• 25g Sugar
• 1 tsp Sea Salt
• 100g Raisins
• 150g Currants

For the Honey Glaze

• 50g of your favourite Honey
• Splash of Double Cream
• 1tsp Mixed Spice

For the Cross Paste

• 50g Plain Flour
• 1Tbsp Oil
• 1tsp Baking Powder
• 50ml Water

What to do

Soak the currants and raisins for an hour or so. We’ve used water to soak the fruit but you could use fruit juice or even something like port.

For the ferment – add the flour, sugar and yeast to warmed milk (30°C) and mix together well, seting aside somewhere warm for an hour. Yeast struggles with butter and eggs in enriched dough like this. Giving it a chance to start before adding the rest of the ingredients will ensure you get a risen dough at the end.

Once the ferment has risen, add the rest of the bun dough ingredients except the dried fruit, mix and knead. This is a soft dough. You may need to add a little more flour during kneading but try not to add too much as this will make for solid hot cross buns later.

Drain the currants and raisins and mix with the formed dough. Use the lowest power setting if you’re using an electric mix to make sure you don’t break up the fruit.

Put the dough in a bowl, cover it and leave it somewhere warm to rise for an hour or so

After the rise, divide the dough into 12 equal pieces (or 13 if you keep baker superstitions) and form into tight rounds. You can place them on a lightly floured corner of the workspace while you work. Once all are formed pop them onto a baking sheet which has been lined with parchment or a silicon mat. Place the buns 5cm apart. Cover them and set aside to rise. The buns should practically be touching when ready.

Mix the cross paste. Best way to cross the buns is to use a piping bag or plastic bag with a very small corner cut off. You looking for no more than a 1/2 centimetre paste line when you pipe otherwise the cross will spread too much.

As soon as the crosses are on, place the baking sheet and buns in a pre-heated oven (180°C). Cook for about 15 minutes. You’ll need to keep an eye out to make sure the buns don’t over brown.

When the golden hot cross buns come out of the oven, paint them liberally with the honey glaze. This is made by warming the honey and mixing with the splash of cream and mixed spice

We love these hot cross buns toasted and spread liberally with butter. Totally delicious.

This recipe is inspired from an excellent book by bread guru Andrew Whitely and Bread Matters.