Hot Cross Bun recipe

Line a 9 by 13 inch baking pan or oven tray with baking or parchment paper and set aside.

Add warm water to a small bowl and sprinkle yeast over the top and leave for a few minutes to react.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and orange zest.

In a heatproof bowl, add dried fruit and juice and stir. Heat in the microwave for 1 minute and then stir. Cover the bowl of fruit with a large plate and let it sit for at least 15 minutes. Fruit will soak up the juice and become plump.

Discard any juice in the bottom of the bowl. Place dried fruit on a paper towel and pat dry. Leave to cool.

Add milk and butter to a small saucepan and place on a low heat, stirring, while the milk warms and the butter melts.

Once the butter is melted, remove the milk mixture from the heat. If it is hot to the touch, leave to cool for a minute or two. You want the milk to be warm but not hot. Also, check your yeast has reacted and started to bubble a little on the edges.

Make doughIn the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, add sugar, salt and eggs. Add milk and butter mixture and flour and spices. Add dried fruit. Start to beat on low speed.

Add yeast mixture, water and all, and continue to mix on medium speed until a nice soft dough forms. Once the dough comes together, remove it from the bowl and place it on a lightly floured bench.

Lightly flour your hands and knead the dough by hand for a few minutes or until it is soft and smooth. Add a little extra flour to the bench and/or your hands if it gets a little too sticky to work with – but add it sparingly as we want the dough to be nice and light.

Let dough riseBring your dough into a ball and place in a large mixing bowl that has been lightly greased with butter or oil. Cover with plastic wrap and leave it to rise for approximately 1 hour or until it’s doubled in size.

Next, gently push the air out of your dough using your fist. Then take the dough out of the bowl and knead gently for a minute on a very lightly floured surface before cutting it into 12 even-sized balls of dough (approximately 85-90 grams of dough).

Gently shape into balls and then place on prepared pan in four rows of three. Leave space in between each roll. Once they rise again, they should be touching.

Cover with cling wrap and leave to rise for at least 30 minutes. Or until they have all joined together and almost doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 200 C (390 F) standard / 180 C (355 F) fan-forced.

Sift your flour into a small bowl. Add water and stir until smooth. Transfer your flour mixture to a piping bag fitted with a small tip and pipe a straight line over the buns, horizontally and then again, vertically to form a cross on each one.

Bake buns for approximately 18-20 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Just before the buns are ready, start making the sugar glaze. Add your sugar and water to a small saucepan and place on a medium heat until sugar has completely dissolved. As soon as the buns are ready, remove them from the oven and then immediately brush them with the sugar glaze. Alternatively, you can brush them with warmed apricot jam or marmalade.