If you only get to bake one hot cross bun this Easter…
(Well, actually, that would be hard… maybe if you used a single quail’s egg…)
Anyway. If you’re looking for the ultimate recipe... keep looking. But if you want something tried and tested, you should give this one a go. I’ll be honest, it’s still a pain to make… but then again lots of bakery recipes are. I tried to remove a lot of the complication out of this but it’s still a bit of a faff.
This is a combination of the Japanese Tangzhong technique and a tried and tested brioche buns recipe. This recipe makes around 20 buns (95g each). Funny number I know. Just go with it.
I'm hoping you have a stand mixer with a dough hook. You can make this recipe without it, but be prepared to deal with a very stickly dough. Throwing more flour at it to make it less sticky, will just make the dough - and your buns - a lot stiffer.
Ingredients
For Tangzhong:
40g Strong Bread Flour
54g Water cold
120g Full-fat cold milk
For the main dough
640g Strong bread flour
18g Instant Dry Yeast
14g Salt
12g Mixed Spice
70g Sugar
2 Whole eggs
2 Egg yolks
250g Mixed fruit
For the cross
70g Plain flour
70g Water
For the Glaze
Marmelade or Apricot Jam
THE METHOD
Add all the ingredients for the Tangzhong into a saucepan and whisk together until all the flour is dissolved. Cook over a low heat while whisking constantly until a roux/custard starts to form. As soon as you notice the mixture starting to thicken, take the saucepan off the heat and keep whisking. The residual heat in the pan will finish thickening the roux. Cover and set it aside to cool down.
Mix all the dry ingredients – flour, yeast, sugar, salt and spices – in the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook. Take care to add the salt and the yeast to different sides of the bowl, or the WORLD WILL END!! (so much has been written or filmed about how the salt ‘kills’ the yeast blah blah. I’m pretty sure modern instant dry yeast is not that easy to kill).
Mix the milk and butter in a microwave-proof jug and zap it for around 60sec on high, or just enough to melt the butter but not heat up the milk above 40c. Add the eggs and egg yolk and whisk them together.
Start the stand mixer at a low speed. Add in all the Tangzhong. Then slowly pour in the wet ingredients. When the dough looks like it has soaked up all that liquid, raise the mixer’s speed to medium-high and mix for 5 minutes.
While you’re waiting, soak the mixed fruit in a bowl with hot water for 5 minutes, then drain well and add it to the dough in the mixer and run it for another 5 minutes. Wet fruit and dough won’t immediately want to come together. You might have to stop the mixer a couple of times and fold the dough into itself to help mix in the fruit. Some people use orange juice to soak the fruit, others add rum or liqueur…I’m keeping it simple.
Turn the dough out onto a working surface and gather it into a neat ball. Fruit will be trying to escape - don’t let it. Then place the dough ball in a greased bowl (any vegetable oil will do), cover and leave in a warm place for 30-40 minutes until the dough doubles in size.
Transfer the dough back to the work-surface and cut it into equal chunks around 95g. Avoid using any extra flour. Use a dough scraper to help you instead. Or maybe moisten your hands.
Roll each of the chunks of dough and fruit into little snooker-ball-sized buns. This is easier said than done. You’ll find yourself talking to little pieces of fruit – telling them off for trying to escape! Don’t worry, that’s normal. Tuck any fugitives back in, near the bottom of the ball.
Place the buns on a tray lined with baking parchment, only an inch apart from each other (they are supposed to touch when baking). Cover the tray and set it aside for another 40-60min to rise. Some people use a greased sheet of cling film, others reverse another tray on top of the base tray, others put it inside a balloon made with a large clear bag. Anything really that will keep them warm, not stick to the buns and prevent it from drying..
Heat the oven to 180c /350f (fan assisted).
When the buns have puffed up to almost double their size, it’s time to adorn them with the crosses. Mix the water and plain flour till it makes a thick paste and pipe the mixture over the buns in the shape of crosses. I recommend you make thin lines and not overdo it or your ‘crosses’ will end up quite thick and unpleasant to chew.
Place the tray(s) in the middle shelf of the oven and bake them for 18 minutes till nice and golden.
Dissolve some marmalade or apricot jam in an equal amount of hot water and use it to brush over the buns while still hot. Remove them from the oven tray and let them cool down on a wire rack.