Cranberry hot cross buns
Happy Easter! I love a good hot cross bun and homemade buns are a hundred miles better than shop-bought. Though they’re made using an enriched dough, they’re not hard and they’re one of the first yeasted buns I made successfully! This is a different twist on the classic mixed fruit variety – the cranberries have a lovely sweet tanginess that really work well.
For around 16 buns, you need:
- 450g strong white bread flour
- 50g caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon of nutmeg
- 1 x 7g sachet of fast-action yeast
- 50g unsalted butter
- 150g dried cranberries
- 200ml lukewarm milk
- 2 eggs
To finish
- 5 tablespoons of strong white bread flour
- 4 tablespoons of milk
- 2 tablespoons of caster sugar
- Sieve the flour into a bowl and add the sugar, salt, spices and yeast, making sure the yeast and the salt don’t touch. Stir to combine.
- Rub the butter into the flour until the mix is like breadcrumbs. Add the cranberries and stir to evenly distribute.
- Warm the milk until tepid in the microwave, then crack in the eggs and beat with a fork. Make a well in the centre of the bowl and all the milk and eggs. Use your hand to draw the flour from the outside of the bowl into the well. Keep doing this until you have a very moist dough.
- Knead the dough on a floured work surface for ten minutes, adding extra flour if your dough is too sticky. Knead until smooth and elastic. Pop it back in the bowl, cover with greased cling film and leave in a warm place for an hour or until it has doubled in size.
- Punch your risen dough so it deflates. Turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface and divide into 16 equally sized balls. Place equally spaced apart on a baking tray lined with baking parchment.
- Cover with greased cling film and put back in the warm place until it’s doubled in size again — it should take another hour or so.
- Pre-heat the oven to 200°C.
- Mix the flour with water until it makes a thick, paste (around 5 tablespoons of water). Put in a piping bag/sandwich bag with the tip snipped off and pipe a cross onto each bun. Mine were a bit big as I got a bit over excited when snipping the hole!
- Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until the buns are brown. If they look dry, don’t worry.
- Whilst they’re baking, mix the milk and sugar in a saucepan and put over the heat. Bring to the boil (being careful not to let it bubble over), let it cook for a minute and then turn off the heat.
- As soon as the buns are cooked, glaze them with the sugar-milk mixture.
- Let them cool and have them however you like — dripping with butter, smeared with jam and cream, toasted, whatever.
Enjoy!
I can’t believe I’ve not had a hot cross bun yet this year! Love the idea of cranberry in them – I’ve always liked the ones with citrus in them rather than just your usual sultanas as well :)