We will serve no buns before their time. Except hot cross buns.
How do you track the seasons? By the temperature outdoors? The quality of light pouring in the window as you sit at the breakfast table? Or perhaps by which of your favorite professional teams is in action. (Go Sox!)
Me, I track the seasons by what’s for sale just inside the entry doors at Kmart; and what’s featured in the supermarket’s in-store bakery.
Though I haven’t been to Kmart recently, I’d imagine that by now, 7 weeks before Easter, they’re heavily into spring clothes, stuffed bunnies, and the ubiquitous Marshmallow Peeps—in more shapes and colors than ever before.
Yes, the past few years we’ve witnessed a Peeps explosion. Blue bunnies! Purple eggs! Green chicks! Yellow, white, pink, doesn’t matter to me, so long as they never lose that plain-jane marshmallow flavor, and signature soft-gritty Peep texture.
Supermarket bakeries, on the other hand, are still drafting on the high of Mardi Gras king cakes, while getting ready to jump into shamrock cookies, green-iced cupcakes, and golden rounds of Americanized Irish soda bread.
St. Patrick’s Day is a tough one for bakers. Green + baking aren’t two concepts that play happily together. Though pistachio cookies and Key lime pie try to carry the day, there’s not a single kelly-green baked good that doesn’t rely on a heavy dose of food color for its hue. Ewwww.
But Easter—ah, Easter is heaven for supermarket bakeries. Bunny cakes! Iced flower cookies! In Italian bakeries, gorgeous lamb cakes, and colomba pasquale, Easter dove bread.
And everywhere, of course, hot cross buns.
These buns, historically baked 2 days before Easter on Good Friday, are now available well before that. Originally packed with candied peel and other dried fruits, and marked with a piped pastry cross on top—not sweet icing—they’ve devolved into plain raisin buns topped with a thick frosting cross.
I don’t know many kids who like hot cross buns, once they’ve licked off the icing. But lots of Boomers still seem to go for them, perhaps remembering pre-Kmart days when the seasons weren’t accelerated and extended, and the appearance of hot cross buns meant spring really was just around the corner.
So, forgive me. I’m pulling a Kmart here, and surfacing hot cross buns well before their calendar due date. We’re in the heart of winter still; February and March, here in Vermont, are traditionally our snowiest months.
Still, I can see the green tips of daffodils edging up along my south foundation. So maybe spring isn’t so far away after all. And perhaps it’s OK to celebrate the longed-for return of warm weather with a batch of hot cross buns well in advance of Easter.
Read our Easy Hot Cross Buns recipe as you follow along with these pictures.
First, let’s prepare the fruit; you should do this well ahead of when you want to make the buns, as it needs to sit for preferably a couple of hours (longer doesn’t hurt).
I like to use tiny, sweet dried currants; and our fruitcake blend, which combines diced apricots, pineapple, cranberries, raisins, and dates. Non-traditional, for sure, but oh-so-tasty. Combine the fruit with rum (or apple juice), cover with plastic wrap, and microwave for a minute or so, just to heat it up. Remove from the heat, and let it cool to room temperature. As it cools, it should absorb most of the liquid.
I decided to follow this recipe’s original directions by combining everything except the flour—butter, milk, eggs, yeast, sugar, spices, salt, and baking powder.
And here’s what happened—a mess. Globs of butter and spices floating in liquid. Next time, I’m combining ALL of the dough ingredients at once.
Here’s what the dough looked like when I added the flour. That’s more like it.
It’s very soft. I beat it with the flat beater for 3 minutes…
…then scraped down the sides of the bowl, and switched to the dough hook.
An additional 4 minutes of kneading with the dough hook turned it into a sticky, fairly smooth dough.
In goes the cooled fruit, including any liquid that hasn’t been absorbed.
This is sticky business, kneading the fruit in. Your best bet is to oil your hands, and do it right in the bowl.
Keep at it till the fruit is well distributed throughout the dough. Cover the bowl, and let the dough rise for 1 hour.
Here it is after 1 hour. It’s not a vigorous riser, but should puff up a bit.
Gently deflate the dough by scraping it down.
Use a muffin scoop, if you like, to scoop out generous, billiard-ball-sized portions.
Grease your hands, and round the scoops into balls. I ended up with 13 full-sized buns, and one baby. They snuggled nicely in a 9” x 13” pan.
Cover the pan; a plastic shower cap works nicely. Let the buns rise for 1 hour, or until they’ve expanded and started to crowd one another.
Next, whisk up a mixture of egg white and milk; this will give the buns a satiny shine.
Apply to the risen buns; a silicone brush does a nice, gentle job.
Here they are, ready to go into the oven.
Bake the buns for about 20 minutes, till they’re a rich golden brown.
Remove them from the oven.
See that soft shine? Take them out of the pan, and cool them on a rack.
When the buns are cool, make the icing. Combine confectioners’ sugar, milk or cream, a tiny pinch of salt, and vanilla.
Your goal is enough milk or cream to make icing that’s the perfect consistency for piping. Go easy with the liquid; icing can go from perfectly pipe-able to liquid with just a few extra drops.
Now comes the challenge: piping the crosses atop the cooled buns. I used to cut the corner off a plastic sandwich bag to do this; now, it seems every sandwich bag I find has a gusseted corner, or some other “improvement,” that makes it unsuitable for snipping off its corner to make a homemade piping bag.
Plan B: a parchment funnel. (Or Plan B might be disposable pastry bags, if you’re into piping icing on a consistent basis.)
Roll the parchment into a cone.
Secure with a rubber band.
Spoon icing into parchment cone, and cut off its tip, if it’s too small.
Squeeze icing in cross shapes atop the buns.
Here’s what my homemade piping bag looked like by the time I was done. This is why disposable pastry bags were invented.
But in the end—success. These buns looked almost as good as they tasted. Welcome, spring!
Read, rate, and review (please) our recipe for Hot Cross Buns.
Buy vs. Bake
Buy: Entenmann’s hot cross buns, 41¢/ounce
Bake at home: Easy Hot Cross Buns, 12¢/ounce
February 21st, 2009 at 12:17 pm
And exactly where does this fit into my diet? I don’t think you would find anything like these a KMart
Ummm… not low carb, that’s for sure… I think it fits into the “occasional treat” part of your diet. Make a batch - eat one - share the rest. How does that sound, Susan? PJH
February 21st, 2009 at 1:35 pm
I also like to put a bit of cardamom in my Hot Cross Buns. Yumm! Even in Oregon it seems like winter will never end when we get to this part of February. I’m heading for the kitchen right now!
You’re right, cardamom is EXCELLENT in HC buns. I’d forgotten that - thanks for the reminder, Penny. I hope your flowers bloom soon- PJH
February 21st, 2009 at 5:07 pm
I bake Hot Cross buns all Easter season, which doesn’t start till Wednesday!. Its a traditional pastry for the 40 days of Lent, being an exception to all the fasting rules. I like it with the traditional citrus fruits and start by making my own candied orange and lemon peel. Try with 1/3 white whole wheat flour for a better color. I’ve made several of the King Arthur Flour hot cross bun recipes but its always nice to find a new one.
I haven’t had trouble yet finding a non gusseted cheap plastic zip lock bag. For more amusement try maple icing for the cross.
Ah, maple icing - now THAT sounds absolutely stupendous. I’m definitely trying it next time. And your home-candied fruits sounds so much better than those gelatinous, bitter supermarket fruits, too. Thanks, Skeptic!! PJH
February 21st, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Thanks for sharing this! They look absolutely delicious. I don’t know if I’d have the patience to wait for them to cool!
February 21st, 2009 at 6:42 pm
Hi PJ,
I plan to make raisin bread tomorrow. When I see this new post, I’d like to try it out. One question: do these buns stay soft for days like the soft dinner rolls????
Wellll…. I’d say they’re pretty good if you keep them wrapped. Not sure which dinner rolls you’re referring to. The unfortunate thing is, I’d tell you just to reheat before serving, but then the cross melts. Also, not sure how many days. All I can say is - they’re nice and moist, and if you wrap them they should be fine for a few days at least. Good luck - PJH
February 21st, 2009 at 10:18 pm
I usually make just one huge batch of hot cross buns the week before Easter (90 buns), give a bunch away, freeze some, and serve some. I keep a pastry bag full of icing in a plastic bag so I can ice warmed buns just before serving. The kids like to double up on the icing! I like the idea of soaking the fruit in rum, and your KAF fruitcake blend looks delicious–a very appealing combination. Family and friends will expect my traditional recipe, with only raisins for fruit, and cinnamon in the dough (a potato based dough), but I might just try this one earlier in the season, it looks so good!
February 22nd, 2009 at 12:55 am
I have only one thing to add:
If you have no daughters,
Then give them to your sons…
These look seriously wonderful with all that lovely fruit.
February 22nd, 2009 at 3:55 pm
And let’s not forget the folks in your workplace! At least until your manager tells you that you can’t bring them in anymore cuz you’ve caused the average weight of the team to rise…
Well, it happened to me…
Oh my goodness, Mike - can’t imagine that. Here at KAF, eating is part of our job descriptions - we HAVE to taste-test, and the larger the group of testers the better. That’s why we have Weight Watcher meetings on site… PJH
February 23rd, 2009 at 7:56 am
So, do I dare ask: How many Weight Watchers points are one of these babies??!
I just ran the recipe around the block in our nutritional software. The buns are 5 points apiece. The nutritionals are now posted on the recipe online. Susan
February 23rd, 2009 at 2:31 pm
The hot cross buns sound good, but have you ever toasted a peep? You have to watch out for the burning sugar on the out side, drop into a dish and cool a minute or two, but they are tasty.
I am ready for buns! Right after that delicious cheese bread from a much earlier blog. I keep looking like a wonderful baker thanks to you all
February 24th, 2009 at 11:20 am
The Hot Cross Buns that I remember as a child did NOT have icing on them for the cross, but rather a pastry dough type, lighter cross that was baked in. For sweetness there was a clear sugar glaze. Only in recent years have I noticed that everyone seems to use icing. What happened to the original? Does anyone still make it that way? I would like to be able to recreate that kind for my family this Easter.
Claire
Check online, Claire; bet you can find it by googling. Some bakeries still do it this way. In fact, I think our King Arthur bakery still does it this way… try emailing jeffrey.hamelman@kingarthurflour.com, maybe he can help you. Good luck - PJH
February 24th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Hey there,These hot cross buns look as good as they are easy, I will make them again, I meant to ask why the baking powder, since it already has yeast? Thanks again for the wonderful time last Friday at Greensboro, sorry to miss the pie and cookie show, Thanks again, Lillian Stark, Oh by the way it was worth the 90 mile drive.
Baking powder gives them a little extra oomph in the oven, Lillian. Hey, glad you liked the class - thanks for coming! PJH
February 24th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
Ah-h-h, hot cross buns!! What memories I have of my mom making HUGE pans of them every year to be served at church after the Easter sunrise service. She must have made at least 12-14 dozen. Luckily the church kitchen had commercial-size ovens. The HC buns were always the hit of Easter breakfast. Will certainly try your HC buns, P.J., because my boat oven will fit a 9 x 13-inch pan……..the one I purchased last summer at KAF!!!!!
Whatever floats the boat, Sue -
PJH
February 25th, 2009 at 7:44 am
I followed this recipe exactly and they came out beautiful. Thank you for your recipes. I love them
Good job, Mary - glad they worked out for you. See, now you’re all practiced up for Easter- PJH
February 25th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
I love the cardamom idea. How much ground cardamom would you use per cups of flour in a recipe? Too much would be too much!!!
Not sure. Start out with a little, and add to taste? 1/8 teaspoon per cup of flour would probably be a mild start… PJH
February 27th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
These look great, if you use liquid eggs, such as eggbeaters will that cause a problem? other than not having egg whites to brush on?
Should be fine, Lance. Less tender and a bit drier, due to less fat; but if you use Eggbeaters, you already understand that tradeoff… PJH
March 2nd, 2009 at 10:48 pm
I”m from England where Hot Cross buns originated (I think!) and as a child the baker would deliver them warm from the oven on Good Friday.
We never had an icing cross on them ; the pastry cross made from flour and milk was piped on before they were baked and somehow stayed lighter than the rest of the bun. That is how I make them each year using currants and mixed spice (the closest I have found here is pumpkin spice). Anyway it reminds us of “home”.
“Oh! to be in England now that April’s here”
Glad to be able to help you cast your memory back, Eugenia. I’ve been in Paris in April, but not England - would love to travel there sometime. Enjoy the buns - they do indeed have an English history. - PJH
March 10th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Do you have a recipe for Italian Easter Bread? The one my Aunt made had a hard boiled egg hidden in the sweet dough.
Not as such, Rose, but try our Classic Challah recipe, which is the bread part; You just have to figure out how to weave hard-boiled eggs into the braid. You can do it, Rose - I know you can! Good luck - PJH
March 10th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
I went to the recipes section and I couldn’t find the Hot Cross bun recipes that you used to have. I have several hard copies in my notebook so I know they existed. Why the purge?
Just cleaning up, Skeptic; we had too many versions going. I think I can go back in and find them and make them live again - is there one particular one you liked the best? PJH
March 10th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
I liked the Recipe with a little proofing sponge of 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour, and then had an additional cup of white whole wheat flour. My hard copy didn’t have any fruit in this recipe and I wanted to check to see if the recipe had been updated to add some fruit. Otherwise I plan to add 1/2 cup citrus peel and 1 cup currents. I mainly wanted to say hello to old friends.
March 14th, 2009 at 3:51 am
The midwest chain Marsh makes the most delicious Hot Cross Buns! The buns are filled with candied citron, peel, currants and raisins.
March 29th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
I’ve finally gotten around to trying these delicious looking Hot Cross Buns and I find that the dough IS NOT light,it’s quite heavy.The stand mixer moved under it.Oh,my,I wonder what I did wrong?Just waiting for the first hour rise to see if I “m succeeding or?
Hope not.
Andra, my first thought is you used too much flour. A cup of all-purpose flour should weigh 4 1/4 ounces. Take a look at our hints on measuring flour to see if it matches what you did… If your dough was that stiff, it’ll rise more slowly, but give it time; it should be OK in the end. Good luck - PJH
March 31st, 2009 at 10:24 am
I am on my 5th batch of hot cross buns for the season. I tried a flour and water cross which I found on another blog. The initial version was 2 Tablespoons of white flour and 2 Tablespoons of water, mixed together and piped through a plastic bag. It was rather cute and gave a nice cross for the diabetics. It made enough batter to put crosses on 8 buns. I tried it on part of a low sugar batch of hot cross buns, batch #3. However I then scaled it up for the last batch and found two problems. 1) it doesn’t scale up very well, I tried 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup water and found I couldn’t get the lumps out. 2) After baking its tough and tasteless.
I salvaged the batch by using a maple frosting cross on top of the flour and water cross. Many things are improved with maple frosting. Do you have a maple fudge recipe? I could fix a lot of baking disasters by eating a nice piece of fudge to console myself.
Moistening the dried fruit with a couple of tablespoons of orange juice works wonderfully, especially as I normally have orange juice around and rarely have apple juice or rum. Some of the batches of hot cross buns turned out better than others but so far they are all tasty.
Thanks for sharing your experiments, Skeptic. Unfortunately, I don’t have a maple fudge recipe, Can anyone out there help? PJH
April 2nd, 2009 at 10:18 am
This recipe didn’t work for me. I wanted to measure my ingredients by weight, so I printed out that version. The weight version says 17 ounces of flour, which is four cups, not 4 1/2. I kept adding flour because it looked too wet, which was kinda stressful the first time through a recipe.
So sorry, Trisha - Something got lost in the volume/weight translation. I’ve gone in and fixed that. I’m sorry you were stressed; not our goal at all. I hope the buns tasted good, anyway? PJH
April 6th, 2009 at 10:28 am
I’m thinking of trying these this weekend. Would it work to do the second rise in the fridge overnight? I’d like to have them for breakfast Sunday morning and don’t want to start the whole process at 4 a.m.!
Paula, I’d say let them rise about 2/3 of the way on the counter, then refrigerate overnight. Let warm for about an hour the next day, then bake. Should work- PJH
April 6th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
I don’t have a Kitchen Aid Mixer w/ a dough hook, only a hand electrical mixer. How much time do you think I need to knead the dough by hands after I mix everything? Any tips for making sure that I can knead the dough just right?
Keep in mind that this is a very slack or soft dough. You may be temped in kneading by hand to incorporate too much flour, so keep it soft by using some spray oil on your hands instead of the usual adding flour to make the dough pliable. You can still use a bit of flour, but follow the recipe times and keep it loose! Irene at KAF
April 8th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Well, I’m finally ready to make these, but I have a question. My kids don’t like raisins or dried fruits. A local bakery had chocolate chip hot cross buns last year, so I’m going to substitute chips for fruit. Can you think of any alterations in the rest of the recipe that I should be aware of?
Nope, Mary Ellen, a 1:1 substitution should be just fine - and wonderfully tasty! Go for it - PJH
April 10th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
I like using Mellow Blend for rolls sometimes. Would this work here? What about whole wheat pastry flour? How would Hi-Maize work with either of these flours?
Yes, Cathy, Mellow Blend would be fine; cut back on the water by a few tablespoons. I wouldn’t use ww pastry flour - not enough gluten. And yes, substitute Hi-maize for about 3/4 cup of the flour you use -should work just fine. Enjoy - PJH
April 10th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Love these! I did a combo of currants and one of Trader Joes’ yummy dried fruit mixes: blueberries, cherries, cranberries and golden raisins. Soaked them in rum (Mmmmmmmm). I added in a bit of vanilla and almond extract (just because almond always reminds me of Easter, and vanilla bumps that flavor up). I had to add-in more flour — I live in Almost Mexico, AZ, and it was a very hot, dry day (sounds backwards, but I ALWAYS have to add more flour.) Rose beautifully. I’m SOOO excited to eat these. It’s been years since I had hot cross buns.
April 11th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
I made these on Good Friday, and after a little taste have frozen them for Easter morning. My dough was a bit wet and sticky, and although my buns were not rounded and smooth they were still fantastic. The crumb was so moist, shreddy, and tender. I used currants, golden raisins, and dried cherries, reduced the cinnamon by 1/4 tsp and used both cloves and allspice along with nutmeg. Soooo good.